WEEK OF JULY 26 THROUGH JULY 31
Arafat: This land belongs to the Palestinians July 30….(Jerusalem Post) Palestinian Authority Chairman
Yasser Arafat on Thursday told dozens of Fatah activists that "this land
belongs to the Palestinian people" and said the Palestinians will bow only to
God. "Those who are near and far should know that this land is the land of
the Palestinian people, whether they like it or not," a defiant Arafat said. He
added that the Palestinians would continue their struggle until the liberation
of Jerusalem, when "one of our roses and children raise the Palestinian flag on
the walls, minarets and churches of Jerusalem." Scores of Fatah activists
converged on Arafat's compound in Ramallah to express their solidarity with him
in the aftermath of the recent political and security crisis in the PA. The
rally was organized by the local Fatah faction in coordination with the PA
leadership. It was the biggest show of solidarity with Arafat since the crisis
erupted two weeks ago with a spate of kidnappings and protests against his
decision to appoint his cousin, Musa Arafat, as overall commander of the
National Security Forces in the Gaza Strip and rampant corruption. Sakher Habash,
a top Fatah leader in Ramallah, said Arafat was now stronger than ever.
"Although he has been under siege for three years, Arafat remains a powerful
leader and symbol," he said. "He has proven that the siege is the source of his
strength, and not his weakness." Habash claimed that the corruption in the PA
was due to the ongoing siege imposed on Arafat. He said some corrupt
Palestinians had taken advantage of the confinement of Arafat to advance their
personal interests.
The Biggest Liar of Them All July 30….(By David Horowitz) Now we can understand why
Democrats spent the last year attacking the President as someone who lied to
take America into an unnecessary war and destroy brave young American lives for
his corporate friends in Texas. They did it to disarm and anesthetize us, to
deconstruct the very idea of what truth is and prepare us for the most shameless
charade in political memory, the phoniest convention for the phoniest party ever
to mount an American electoral stage. In Boston the Democrats, the party of Al
Sharpton, Jimmy Carter, Teddy Kennedy and Michael Moore presented themselves as
the party of patriotism and military glory and American military strength, and
John Kerry as a man whose life has been one long preparation to be
commander-in-chief. "I am John Kerry," he saluted his audience to begin his
convention speech, "reporting for duty." (Pardon me while I hurl) This is a man
who came back from Vietnam to stab not only his country but his comrades-in-arms
in the back. This is a man who to this very day has an honored place in the
Communist enemy's "War Crimes Museum," that's American war crimes. This is a
party and a wannabe commander in chief that has clamored and voted to oppose
America's wars in Vietnam, the Persian Gulf and in Iraq. This is a party and a
commander in chief that lent comfort and aid to Communist dictators in Central
America during the last years of the Cold War and nearly brought the Reagan
presidency down for attempting to oppose the Communist tide. This is a man and a
party that voted to cut America's military and its intelligence services year
after year, a man and a party who refused to institute the security measures
that would have prevented 9/11. And this is a man and a party that has sabotaged
the war on terror since the day Baghdad was liberated, that has embraced the
reprehensible traitor Michael Moore, and the antiwar left of the Dean campaign,
that has spread monstrous lies about its commander in chief, and and in doing so
undermined the nation's credibility and defenses. If another terrorist state
were to become a threatening nuclear force (Iran comes immediately to mind) what
American president can now face that enemy down with a credible military threat?
This is a party that from the beginning to the end of its convention pretended
to be what it is not. And that is because it fears that American people already
know what it is. Gays to Gain in A Kerry White House July 29….(Washington Times) A parade of Democratic
leaders and Hollywood stars, including Ben Affleck, yesterday reassured
homosexual delegates and advocates that they have a lot to gain by defeating the
Bush administration and electing a Kerry administration. "If nothing else, you
will have a mom in the White House," Teresa Heinz Kerry said before the packed
hotel room of homosexual delegates and advocates. "You're pushing the envelope,
and we, as a country, have to respond with policies and cultural acceptance,"
said Mrs. Kerry, wife of Democratic presidential candidate Sen. John Kerry.
Dignity and respect are paramount qualities, she said. If any of the Kerry
children were to say they were homosexual and wanted to marry their partner, she
said, "I would share my joy and my pride with all my friends," just as if they
were marrying someone of the opposite sex.
Dire Threats From Iran and Lebanon to Israel July 29….(Arutz) Iran threatened on Monday to "wipe Israel off the globe" if Israel were to attack Iran's nuclear program. It is not clear if the Arrow can also intercept Iran's Shihab-3 missiles, which are not only faster than Scuds, but could also be armed with chemical or nuclear warheads. Defense Minister Sha'ul Mofaz said that Teheran had "broken all the rules" when it reneged on its commitment to suspend production of nuclear centrifuge equipment, used in the production of enriched uranium - a prime ingredient for an atomic bomb. He said that international pressure against Iran's nuclear ambitions could obviate the need for a military operation. In related news, IDF Intelligence Chief Gen. Ze'evi-Farkash revealed this week that Syria had recently supplied the Hizbullah terrorists in Lebanon with improved, Syrian-made katyusha rockets. The unguided missiles have a range of at least 130 kilometers, enabling them to reach as far as Hadera and Netanya.
Sharon has bad attitude toward Kerry? July 29….(World Net Daily) Sources close to John Kerry say they're becoming increasingly dissatisfied with Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon's attitude toward the Democratic presidential candidate, while many in the Israeli government are privately voicing concerns that some of Kerry's policies may be harmful to the Jewish State. Kerry's Mid-east advisers, many of whom are Jewish, are complaining that Sharon is playing favorites with Bush and making it difficult for the Democrats to lure Jewish voters. They say Sharon is going out of his way to praise Bush to the American media, and expressed disappointment Sharon wasn't able to meet Kerry during his last trip to Washington in April. In fact, the two men have never spoken. Deputy Prime Minister Ehud Olmert, whose statements are considered closely aligned with Sharon's policy, even recently told a meeting of prominent American Jews that he prefers Bush over Kerry. Former U.S. Ambassador to Israel and a close Kerry confidante Martin Indyk told Israeli Foreign Minister Silvan Shalom this week that he expects a change in Israel's attitude toward Kerry once he is officially nominated this week. The Pime Minister's office says it has no plans to interfere with US elections, just as America should not be involved in Israeli elections. But a growing number of Israeli politicians are privately expressing concern over Kerry's statements of coordinating American foreign policy with the Europeans, and of his appointing several former Clinton Mideast policy directors as advisers. Many blame Clinton's failed approach to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, which sought Israeli territorial concessions for promises of peace by Arafat and ignored indications of growing Palestinian militancy and violations of security reform agreements, for partially causing the current intifada. "We cannot afford another Clinton era in the Mid-east, not at this dangerous time," said an Israeli Likud member. "We hear speaker after speaker at the Democratic convention talk about joint efforts with the EU and the UN. Is Kerry going to advocate for releasing Arafat from isolation, like France wants? Will Kerry take a soft approach to Iran, like some in Europe want? Clinton was soft on North Korea and now they have the nuke. What about the security fence? Is Kerry going to tow the UN line that we don't have the right to protect ourselves from suicide bombers?" he said. Some in Israel were particularly upset that Kerry allowed former President Jimmy Carter, who many Jews feel has taken a consistently pro-Palestinian line since being voted out of office in 1980, to speak at the convention, where he linked the Bush administration's policy toward Israel to anti-American sentiment. " Senior Democrats say Kerry's message has more to do with alleviating pressure on America in Iraq, and not specifically with Israel. Israel says it is strategizing for whomever wins the election, assuming US foreign policy will change after November. Sources in the Prime Minister's office say if Kerry travels to Israel before the US elections, he will be given a meeting with Sharon. "Here's the real question," says one Israeli politician. "If he becomes US President, how will Kerry treat Israel in light of his lust for the good will of France's Chirac and Spain's Solana?" Remembering the Ancient Temple July 28….(David Haggith) Jews from around the world
gathered yesterday to read the book of Lamentations and mourn the loss of their
ancient temple and their ancient city, Jerusalem. The event is known as Tisha
Be’ Av. They mourn as one mourns the loss of an only son, except that they do
not mourn over the loss of their Messiah. What they mourn is the loss of an old
sacrificial system and the temple that represented the old religion that passed
away forty years after the crucifixion of Jesus Christ. Ironically, it was forty
years that the Children of Israel wandered in the wilderness before they entered
the Promised Land. Forty days was also the length of the period for mourning the
dead in Egypt, from which the Children of Israel had fled prior to entering the
Promised Land. And, so, forty years was the perfect amount of time for mourning
the Messiah, who was dead to them, before having to leave the Promised Land, and
the temple, and the old religion that required the temple in order to be
practiced. The Jewish way of life and religion in the Holy Land that had come
into being and existed throughout the Old Testament, all came down forty
years after the crucifixion of Jesus Christ. Two-thousand years later, Jews
still wonder how God could have allowed the temple to be destroyed? What
grievous sin had the people of Israel committed that God would completely
abandon his temple and the Holy Mount on which the temple stood and that great
capital city, Jerusalem, and all of the land of Israel? What sin of the
people was possibly so great that God would abandon even the people themselves,
allowing them to be taken from the land that was "rightfully theirs" and to be
sent adrift among pagan nations? Why two-thousand years later are they still
searching for the answer to those questions? Because they don't want to see the
one answer that stands right in the center of it all. Unwilling to see that
answer, two-thousand years later, they still look for another, mourning the lost
temples and not the lost Messiah.
Hamas Organization in US Charged July 28….(AP) A major American Muslim charity and seven of its officers were charged Tuesday with providing millions of dollars in support to Hamas, a Palestinian terrorist organization blamed for dozens of suicide bomber attacks in Israel. The 42-count indictment, returned by a federal grand jury in Dallas, alleges that the Holy Land Foundation for Relief and Development provided more than $12.4 million to individuals and organizations linked to Hamas from 1995 to 2001. The US government froze the charity's assets in December 2001. To those who exploit good hearts to secretly fund violence and murder, this prosecution sends a clear message: There is no distinction between those who carry out terrorist attacks and those who knowingly finance terrorist attacks," Attorney General John Ashcroft said at a news conference to announce charges. Noting that a number of Americans have been Hamas victims, Ashcroft said, "Today, a US-based charity that claims to do good works is charged with funding the works of evil." The attorney general said the foundation gave money to the families of Hamas terrorists killed and jailed by Israel. "In this manner, the defendants effectively rewarded past, and encouraged future suicide bombings and terrorist activities on behalf of Hamas." Israel banned Holy Land from operating within its borders in 1997 and said it funneled money to the families of suicide bombers. Israeli government officials hailed the US move against the group. Holy Land had close ties to a computer and Internet-hosting company in suburban Dallas that was raided a few days before the terror attacks in September 2001. Agents seized computer hard drives and boxes of documents from the offices of InfoCom Corporation directly across the street from Holy Land's offices.
Arafat's Poisonous Reign Finally Being Challenged July 28….(Joel Mowbray/Jewish World Review) News headlines at the start of the week diligently covered the unfolding drama in the Middle East, with Palestinian Prime Minister Ahmed Qureia resigning, then apparently un-resigning, followed by the Palestinian "parliament" urging strongman Yasser Arafat to accept the original resignation. While the stories certainly made for interesting copy, they all missed the real point: No matter how well-intentioned a new leader might be, peace cannot come as long as Arafat is around. Even upon the ouster or death of Arafat, the former finally seeming like a realistic possibility, peace might not occur for some time afterward, given how thoroughly Arafat has poisoned the Palestinian culture. What is now unfolding could mark the start of Arafat's eventual demise. Then again, he has a knack for hanging on when everyone has counted him out. When the US and the European Union last year wanted to "sideline" Arafat, the lifelong terrorist, and ultimate political survivor appointed his longtime number-two, Mahmoud Abbas, as prime minister. Hoodwinked Western diplomats nodded in approval. Within four months, Abbas was gone. Less than a year later, Qureia either has resigned or is at least trying to. What both men quickly realized is that Arafat has his hand on all the levers of Palestinian power. How anyone who knows Arafat could believe he could be "sidelined" is simply baffling. It's not in his character to allow any sort of power-sharing. From the time of supposed self-governance (in the form of the Palestinian Authority) granted following the Oslo accords of 1993, Arafat has controlled practically every aspect of Palestinian life, from the security forces to radio and television to the economy. Maybe it's no surprise that Abbas refused to cross Arafat, and that Qureia chose resignation over a "mysterious" death. At least Arafat treats political enemies better than he does Israelis. He openly desires nothing short of the complete destruction of the Jewish State. While charming diplomatic dupes in the West with beautiful English-language statements, he has for years been rallying Palestinians to Jihad . It's all part of Arafat's cult of death. (the perpetual hatred mentioned in Ezekiel 35) It starts by brainwashing youths not long after they are out of diapers, and the incitement continues with the bombardment of constant anti-Semitism and calls to arms over radio and television. With so much venom injected into Palestinian hearts and minds, it's a fair question if peace can come even after Arafat exits stage left. Offering a glimmer of hope, though, that Palestinians might be able to overcome Arafat's cancerous reign is decades of exposure to Israeli media. Though Palestinians may not love their neighbor, they do envy it. According to a recent poll, Palestinians preferred an Israeli-style democracy over that found in any other nation, such as the US, France, or Germany. It would be messy, and likely bloody, but after the demise of Arafat, the Palestinian people might eventually get just that. (and only with a resolution under the auspices of the Antichrist)
Cheney to Democrats: Weakness Invites Terror July 28….(My Way) Flanked by American flags and
howitzers, Vice President Dick Cheney on Tuesday defended the war in Iraq and a
policy of preemptive attack against criticism from Democrats at their national
convention. With President Bush staying out of the political fray at his
Crawford, Texas, ranch, Cheney was on the West Coast to rally fellow Republicans
for the November election and counter charges by Democrats meeting in Boston.
"Terrorist attacks are not caused by the use of strength. They are invited by
the perception of weakness," Cheney said at Camp Pendleton on the Southern
California coast. Cheney said Americans were safer and he stood by prewar
characterizations of Iraq as a threat despite the failure to find weapons of
mass destruction and new warnings by Cheney and other administration officials
that another major terrorist attack may be coming. On the first day of their
four-day convention, Democrats drew a stark contrast between Bush and Democratic
presidential rival John Kerry. Explaining the Arab-Israeli conflict through numbers Number of times Jerusalem is mentioned in the Old Testament: over 700 Number of times Jerusalem is mentioned in the Koran: 0 Number of Arab leaders who visited Jerusalem when it was under Arab rule (1948 to 1967): 1 Number of Arab refugees who fled the land that became Israel: approximately 600,000 Number of Jewish refugees who fled Arab countries: approximately 600,000 Number of Jewish states that have existed on the land called Palestine: 3 Number of Arab or Muslim states that have existed on the land called Palestine: 0 Number of terrorist attacks by Israelis or Jews since 1967: 1 Number of terrorist attacks by Arabs or Muslims since 1967: thousands Number of Jewish countries: 1 Number of Jewish democracies: 1 Number of Arab countries: 19 Number of Arab democracies: 0 Number of Arab women killed annually by fathers and brothers in "honor killings": thousands Number of Jewish women killed annually by fathers and brothers in "honor killings": 0 Number of Christian or Jewish prayer services allowed in Saudi Arabia: 0 Number of Muslim prayer services allowed in Israel: unlimited Number of Arabs Israel allows to live in Arab settlements in Israel: 1,250,000 Number of Jews Palestinian Authority allows to live in Jewish settlements in Palestinian Authority: 0 Percentage of UN Commission on Human Rights resolutions condemning an Arab country for human-rights violations: 0 Percentage of UN Commission on Human Rights resolutions condemning Israel for human rights violations: 26 Number of UN Security Council resolutions on the Middle East between 1948 and 1991: 175 Number of these resolutions against Israel: 97 Number of these resolutions against an Arab state: 4 Number of UN General Assembly resolutions condemning Israel: 322 Number of UN General Assembly resolutions condemning an Arab country: 0 Percentage of UN votes in which Arab countries voted with the United States in 2002: 16.6 Percentage of UN votes in which Israel voted with the United States in 2002: 92.6 Percentage of people who argue that the Jewish State has no right to exist who also believe some other country has no right to exist: 0 Percentage of people who argue that of all the countries in the world, only the Jewish State has no right to exist and yet deny they are anti-Jewish: approximately 100 Number of Muslims in the world: more than 1 billion Number of Muslim demonstrations against Islamic terror: approximately 2 FOJ Note: Numbers do tell a story don’t they?
Carter Sees Battle for 'Nation's Soul' July 27….(World Net Daily) Former President Jimmy Carter
said he is nearly 80 years old, but has found the last few months, under the
Bush administration to be most disturbing. At stake in the presidential election
pitting Democrat John Kerry as the challenger to President Bush, he said, "is
nothing less than our nation's soul." (FOJ Note: He has that right, but
he and Kerry are fighting against America’s soul) The Middle East peace
process has come to a screeching halt for the first time since Israel became a
nation," he said. (Hallelujah, the so-called peace process is a charade
anyway, leading only to cutting Israel into pieces!) "All former presidents,
Democratic and Republican, have attempted to secure a comprehensive peace for
Israel with hope and justice for the Palestinians. The achievements of Camp
David a quarter century ago and the more recent progress made by President Bill
Clinton are now in peril." All of this, as well as the North Korean nuclear
menace, he said, is due to Bush's "radical departure from the basic American
principles and values espoused by John Kerry." Carter suggested Kerry, because
of his service in Vietnam, will be less likely to send young Americans to war.
"I am confident that next January he will restore the judgment and
responsibility to our government that is sorely lacking today," Carter said.
Carter said the No. 1 reason to elect Kerry is to "safeguard the security of our
nation." "Today, our dominant international challenge is to restore the
greatness of America, based on telling the truth, a commitment to peace, and
respect for civil liberties at home and basic human rights around the world," he
said. "Truth is the foundation of our global leadership, but our credibility has
been shattered and we are left increasingly isolated and vulnerable in a hostile
world. Without truth, without trust, America cannot flourish. Trust is at the
very heart of our democracy, the sacred covenant between the President and the
people."
Clinton Says Bush Ruined His Legacy July 27….(FOJ) Bill Clinton accused President Bush of
wasting the advances of his eight years as President in a rousing
opening-night speech to the Democratic National Convention yesterday, urging the
election of Sen. John Kerry to restore his legacy. "President Bush had an
amazing opportunity after September 11 to bring the country together under his
slogan of compassionate conservatism and to unite the world in the struggle
against terror. Instead, he and his congressional allies made a very different
choice," Mr. Clinton said. "They chose to use that moment of unity to try to
push the country too far to the right and to walk away from our allies," he
said.
The Liberal Globalists are “Partying” This Week July 27….(FOJ-Darrell G. Young) I have been watching the numerous media interviews with the celebrity liberal Democrat leadership this week, and there is a dangerous deception being perpetrated upon America by these elitists Global ideologues. Former 1972 Presidential candidate George McGovern was interviewed on Fox and complained about how President Bush had mismanaged America’s foreign policy. He adamantly stated that America needed to be even handed in the Israeli-Arab Peace negotiations and stop pandering to Israel. He emphatically stated that the US is making itself the most hated nation in the world by undertaking a stance too much in favor of Israel. He actually said that the terrorists had a genuine quarrel with America, and that the best way to fight terror was to look at things from their perspective and make compromises with them on the issues that disturbs them. Then along comes former President Jimmy Carter (1976-1980) and he places all the blame for the war on terror on President Bush for what he called being narrow-minded about how to help build a Global Order in terms of peace and security. He castigated the Bush Administration for making policy decisions that have worked to make America the Evil Empire around the world in the eyes of Arabs, Europeans, and Muslims. A quick review of the geo-political landscape around the world reveals that the world power structures want a concluded Middle East Peace Pact, and see President Bush as the enemy to world peace. In truth, President Bush is probably doing the best thing he can do under the circumstances. If America is going to survive as a Christian nation, then we need to defend Israel’s right not only to exist, but also to possess the land that God has given unto them. But of course, the world, Arabs, Muslims, Europeans and all others will not accommodate Israel’s birthright. Our world is headed straight towards the last days and its Armageddon scenario. And we as Christians need to realize that it is all according to God’s providential plan, and that although the Globalist-secular ideologues are gaining control around the world, God is still almighty, and he will soon send his Son Jesus Christ to destroy this anti-Israel, anti-Zion, anti-Christian world conspiracy. It is amazing to watch all this playing itself out on the world stage today, and that is why I encourage every Christian to continue to look up, for your redemption draweth near! Breaking Silence over a Possible Imminent Threat July 26….(Defense Watch) In Arizona, in the area the many refer to as the Naco Strip, our international border with Mexico has become a primary route of illegal entry by significant numbers of Arab-speaking males. The porous frontier, harried US government officials say, is beginning to look a lot like the left lane on a European Autobahn. It doesn"t take a master spy to conclude that we may be seeing a large-scale influx of al Qaeda terrorists into the country. This stunning disclosure has been made by a small-town newspaper in Arizona, the Tombstone Tumbleweed, whose editor, Chris Simcox, posted an article on the paper’s web-site last week revealing the presence of Arab-speaking males amid the waves of illegals recently captured. The article is based on separate, first-hand interviews with three US government agents who confirmed that males of possible Syrian and Iranian descent have been detained in the past few weeks. Today we are at war with an ideology that poses a far deeper peril to our national security than the Mexican revolutionary ever did. The Islamofascists of al Qaeda seek to kill men, women and children without distinction and ultimately overcome and ultimately destroy the concept of American freedom itself. The task of securing our borders from the porous history of the past is absolutely critical. And it is not happening. The influx of thousands of illegal aliens, including members of the infamous drug cartels, is bad enough. But others are slipping into the United States as well. A Border Patrol spokesman has confirmed that since Oct. 1, 2003, 5,510 illegal aliens designated as "Other Than Mexican" (OTM) have been apprehended while crossing the rugged terrain in southern Arizona. The term actually means "other than Mexico or other central and South American countries," the spokesman said. So just who are, and from where, is this invading force of encroachers coming from? "Can"t tell you that", said Border Patrol spokesman Andy Adame when queried by the Tombstone Tumbleweed newspaper yesterday. Agent Adame declined to say what countries the OTM illegals are from, although he admitted detainees include "people from all over the world." Adame added, "We apprehend them, process them, and turn them over to [the U.S. Department of] Homeland Security and the FBI and that is all I can say." Fasten your seatbelt: It gets considerably worse! Three independent sources within the Border Patrol's uniformed division, agents who patrol the Arizona outback in the dark of night told the Tombstone Tumbleweed newspaper that a significant amount of the OTMs are of Middle Eastern extraction. The 9/11 Commission formally released its report that catalogs the "failures of imagination, policy, capabilities and management" that enabled the terrorists to kill over 3,000 Americans. Is our nation’s failure to seal up the porous border with Mexico setting us up for another 9/11-type attack?
Arafat wants Bush, Sharon out July 26….(World Net Daily) Yasser Arafat is biding his time until November, when he hopes President Bush will be voted out of office and Ariel Sharon's coalition government will fall, Israel's intelligence chief said. "Arafat is waiting for November in the hope George Bush will lose the election to John Kerry," military intelligence chief Major General Aharon Ze'evi told Army Radio Sunday. "He also hopes that the Israeli government will fall, so he can take center stage diplomatically." Since 2002, Washington has fully backed Jerusalem's decision to isolate the Palestinian Authority president, who Sharon says is directly involved in planning terrorism, and is an obstacle to peacemaking. In his first public comments since political turmoil in Gaza ahead of Sharon's unilateral withdrawal in 2005 turned into a political confrontation with Prime Minister Ahmed Qurei last week, Arafat denied his government was in a crisis, and said he had approved reforms of his security forces. But Ze'evi, speaking at a weekly cabinet meeting, said that open Palestinian opposition to Arafat's policies was mounting in the Gaza Strip, and that the area is headed into a civil war. Ze'evi's said more Palestinians are realizing they are losing more in this conflict than Israel. He said Israel's ability to effectively fight terrorism, coupled with the fact that neither Israeli society nor its economy has crumbled under the weight of the violence, is causing Palestinian frustration and turmoil. When he heard that Arafat wants him toppled, Sharon responded, "Arafat wants to see me driven out, as well? I thought that only in Israel people were wishing for my downfall." Kerry has said he would not seek to rebuild ties with Arafat if elected president in November. WEEK OF JULY 19 THROUGH JULY 25
US Policy on Israel key Motive for 9-11 July 23….(9-11 Commission Report excerpt) Khalid Shaikh Mohammed, the man who conceived and directed the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks, was motivated by his strong disagreement with American support for Israel, said the final report of the Sept. 11 commission. Mohammed conceived the initial outline of the attack six years before its execution and brought the plan to al-Qaida leader Osama bin Laden because he thought he did not have the resources to carry it out on his own. The Sept. 11 report contains the fullest accounting of Mohammed's overarching role from original conception to supervision of details. Bin Laden, too, was fully involved, selecting all or most of the participants, ordering the substance and the location of their training, and contributing to the timing of the attacks and the selection of targets, the report says. Radical Islamists associated with 9/11 plotter Khalid Sheikh Mohammed hit the World Trade Center with a truck bomb in 1993, and two years later were discovered plotting mass hijackings of US airliners.
Iran's Growing Threat July 23….(Frontpage) Recent events have made it clear
that the threat posed by Iran should be dealt with sooner rather than later.
Today's 9/11 Commission report documents extensive ties between Iran and
terrorism, and the mullahs' drive to create a nuclear weapon is well known. In
recent days, Iranian officials and clerics have increased the incitement for
violence against American and Coalition forces in Iraq. However, ending the real
threat this fundamentalist Islamic theocracy poses to the United States and the
West may be impossible, thanks to the Left’s and the pro-Islamists non-stop
assault on the president's credibility. The case against Iran should be
air-tight. The Bush Administration is now armed with:
So We Lacked Imagination!
Berger Hiding OKC Bombing Secret Memo? July 23….(World Net Daily) The woman who wrote the
definitive book on a Middle Eastern connection to the Oklahoma City bombing says
the classified terror-threat report at the center of a criminal investigation of
former Clinton aide Sandy Berger might include information about a high-level
al-Qaida operative having visited OKC ahead of the 1995 attack on the Murrah
Federal Building. As World Net Daily reported Berger removed handwritten notes
and secret documents from a National Archives reading room prior to his
testimony before the 9-11 Commission. One of the documents was the draft of an
after-action report he ordered his anti-terror czar, Richard Clarke, to write in
early 2000. Berger has spoken publicly about how the review brought to the
forefront the realization that al-Qaida had reached America's shores and
required more attention. The draft report of the NSC "Millennium After Action
Review" addresses the Clinton Administration's handling of al-Qaida terror
threats during the December 1999 millennium celebration. Jayna Davis, author of
“The Third Terrorist: The Middle Eastern Connection to the OKC Bombing”, points
out the writing of the report was in the same timeframe Yossef Bodansky, former
director of the Congressional Task Force on Terrorism and Unconventional
Warfare, confirmed that Dr. Ayman Al-Zawahiri, one of al-Qaida chief Osama
bin Laden's lieutenants, traveled to Oklahoma City in the spring of 1995 " to
insure the smooth execution of the pending terrorist strike against the Murrah
federal complex," said Davis. "Bodansky explained that he did not confirm
Al-Zawahiri's mission to the heartland state until late 1999," Davis told WND.
"This revelation coincides with Richard Clarke's drafting of the Berger-directed
review regarding the realization that Al-Qaida had reached America's shores."
Asked Davis: "Was Bodansky's confirmation that the chief lieutenant of the bin
Laden terror network traveled to the US to oversee final preparations for the
1995 terrorist strike on the Oklahoma City federal building included in Clarke's
draft reports that are now officially missing from National Archives? "Did
Berger and Clarke review Bodansky's skillful analysis of the Murrah Building
bomb that drew striking parallels to the techniques used by known Islamist
groups for operations in Argentina and elsewhere?" UN's Oil-for-Terror Program July 22….(Newsmax) There is new evidence that UN has gone from a useless to a dangerous organization. American officials say millions of dollars Saddam Hussein stole from the disastrous oil-for-food program are funding the terrorism that plagues Iraq. US intelligence officials and congressional investigators said last night that the ‘oil-for-insurgency link’ has been recently unearthed in the numerous probes now under way into the giant UN humanitarian program, in which Saddam is believed to have pocketed $10.1 billion through oil smuggling and kickbacks from suppliers,” the New York Post reported Monday. Congressional investigators have uncovered hundreds of documents in recent weeks that detail how top officials in Saddam's regime directed companies bidding on contracts for oil or humanitarian goods to pay ‘after-sales fees,’ or kickbacks of up to 10 percent of each contract.” The documents show that the kickbacks were funneled into Saddam’s secret bank accounts abroad, including Syria, Lebanon, Jordan and Belarus. The oil-for-food scandal remains one of the most underreported stories of the year, aside from a few exceptions such as the Post, Fox News Channel and NewsMax. The media establishment has shown great interest in anything that makes the United States in general or the Bush Administration in particular look bad, but continues to cover for its favorite corruption-riddled globalist outfit. Yet another report Monday offered further proof of the UN’s extreme incompetence and malign neglect. Although Annan is from Africa, Amnesty International issued a report highlighting his failure to do anything to stop Arab militiamen from raping and torturing black women and children in Sudan. But then, the genocide in Rwanda shows that Annan has never had any will to stop mass murder on his native continent. If Annan and his gang of luxuriously ensconced and taxpayer-supported bureaucrats won’t take action against such atrocities in Africa, it’s clearer than ever that they won’t do anything about Iraq either. How shameful that these parasites are more interested in protecting Saddam than the people of the Third World.
Clinton’s Security Chief Fumbles to Bush July 22….(DEBKAfile Special Report from Washington) Former president Bill Clinton’s national security adviser, Sandy Berger, is under criminal investigation and subject to FBI searches of his home and his office since he was caught, probably by hidden cameras, purloining copies of highly classified terrorism documents and his own handwritten notes from a secure reading room at the National Archives in Washington. This event took place, according to the Associated Press, during preparations to testify at the Sept. 11 commission hearings after Clinton asked him to review and select the administration documents to be turned over to the panel. This year, Berger has been informally advising Democratic presidential candidate John Kerry. Even after Berger voluntarily returned documents, two or three drafts are still missing of a sensitive, after-action report criticizing the Clinton administration’s handling of al Qaeda millennium threats and identifying American vulnerabilities at airports and sea ports. The former national security adviser was also found in possession of a small number of classified papers containing his handwritten notes from the Middle East peace talks during the 1990s. They are not the focus of the current criminal probe. The FBI searches occurred after National Archives employees reported they saw Berger place documents in his jacket and pants and then noticed some documents missing. Three still are. Berger admitted to “sloppiness” and “inadvertently” taking copies of classified documents. They were all immediately returned, he said, except for a few that he had “apparently accidentally discarded.” The Berger affair is pennies from heaven for the Bush presidential campaign with important bearing on the inquiries into intelligence performance prior to the 9/11 attacks and the Iraq War. It is also of deep significance for Israel. For months, President George W. Bush and vice president Dick Cheney have been under unremitting attack in official probes, films and books for bad decisions and “flawed intelligence” in the war on terrorism and for misrepresenting the grounds for going to war in Iraq. In the privacy of the Bush White House, presidential aides grumble that the Clinton administration’s failure to properly handle rising threats from Osama bin Laden and Saddam Hussein in the 1990s left these ticking bombs in Bush’s lap. Clinton was said to have ignored the many warnings reaching him, including a specific threat against New York’s World Trade Center. However, Bush has always forbidden his campaign staff to point the finger at his predecessor in the White House for the ills of today, just as Clinton refrains from criticizing the incumbent. The actions of his former aide have changed these rules. Presidential challenger Kerry will have to think twice before attacking Bush on national security issues lest he lay himself open to reminders that a former Clinton aide and his own adviser was caught red-handed misappropriating classified materials that revealed how a Democratic president mishandled the threat of terror. Berger was closely involved in more than one Labor-led Israeli government’s controversial handling of the peace process during the Clinton years. A founding father of Israel’s dovish Peace Now movement, the adviser was a friend of the late prime minister Yitzhak Rabin and Ehud Barak. He was less close to Shimon Peres, preferring to deal with his aide Yossi Bailin, the current leader of Israel’s far left Yahad party. According to DEBKAfile’s sources, Berger removed his notes from Middle East peace talks from the National Archives in view of the unfortunate sequels of the Clinton presidency’s two central, mutually supportive policies. On the one hand, Clinton pushed hard for accommodations between Israel, the Palestinians and its Arab neighbors, while at the same time nurturing American ties in the Arab and Muslim world. He hoped to gain the trust of Arab and Muslim leaders for peace with Israel while persuading the Jewish State to be forthcoming with concessions. However, Clinton’s expectation of a Middle East peace triumph at the White House in the wake of the 1993 Oslo Accords melted down in the ensuing blight of the Palestinian suicide terror confrontation that continues to beset the region. The consequences of his second policy line were still more sweeping. In deciding to go to war in 1998 on the Muslim Albanian side of the Balkans against the Christian Serbs, Clinton may have been influenced by the atrocities committed there but he was in essence pursuing his global strategy. He chose to elide the fact that Iranian Revolutionary Guards and al Qaeda cells, most Saudi-dominated, were fighting alongside Albanian and Bosnian Muslims, as did his advisers, especially Berger and Secretary of State Madeline Albright. Islamic extremists and Arab terrorists as well as the Saddam regime prospered unnoticed in the Clinton years. Al Qaeda was allowed to build up in the Balkans a central logistical base for operations in Europe, from which the Hamburg cell later derived back-up for plotting the 9/11 attacks against America. Berger is the second Clinton-era official to face prosecution for withdrawing classified materials from secure premises. Former CIA director John Deutsch was pardoned by Clinton hours before he left office and saved from paying the price for taking home laptops with classified materials in 1996. Earlier, Deutsch resigned. The case of Sandy Berger differs because the charges against him arise from the request of a former president in connection with an official probe. There will always be a question hanging over the precise nature of this request. Did the former adviser copy and “discard” documents at Clinton’s behest or his own initiative? (absolutely!) In the absence of answers, a cloud of suspicion will hang over the affair and almost certainly influence American opinion before and after November’s presidential election. Iran is Israel’s Prime Enemy and Threat July 21….(Maariv) An Annual Israeli intelligence report states Tehran’s race to acquire nuclear weapons and ongoing support of terrorism make it most serious existential threat facing Israel. The annual intelligence report presented to the security cabinet yesterday identifies the development of unconventional weapons in the Middle East as the most important existential threat to Israel. The report focused on Iran, both as the country most likely to acquire WMD capabilities, and as the biggest backer of terrorism. The IDF is extremely concerned by Iran’s ongoing pursuit of nuclear capabilities and launching systems, such as the Shihab missile. Syria’s development of chemical and biological warheads is also a matter of grave concern, since such weapons could end up in the hands of Hezbollah. The other main concern is the formation of an operational alliance between global and regional terrorism, specifically between al Qaeda and Hezbollah and Palestinian terrorist groups. The new worries have displaced the traditional preoccupation with the neighboring countries. The IDF is by far superior to the armies of its potential enemies, such as Syria and Lebanon (Hezbollah). Despite the fact that Egypt, with whom Israel has a long-standing peace treaty, is continuously modernizing its army and especially the navy, at this stage Israel does not perceive it as a potential threat. On the other hand, the developments in Saudi Arabia are disturbing. In recent years, the Saudis have equipped their army with F-15s, Apaches, and sophisticated weapon systems. The main threat to Israel lies in the instability of the Saudi government and the penetration of al-Qaeda terrorists into its security establishment. The IDF has already shifted its focus from investing into large armored battalions, necessary on the battlefield, to hi-tech advanced notice and prevention systems, which would allow it to combat the new threats.
Iran Building 5th Column Among Israeli Arabs July 21….(Jerusalem Post) Iran is trying to build a "Trojan Horse" among Israeli Arabs, and is also the leading force behind most Palestinian terror groups, including the Hamas, Islamic Jihad and Tanzim, Shin Bet director Avi Dichter said yesterday during Israel’s annual intelligence review. Dichter also warned that Gaza could become another "south Lebanon" if arms keep flowing in. He termed the smuggling of arms a "serious threat." Since the beginning of 2003, some 330 anti-tank missiles have been smuggled in, and anti-aircraft missiles have either already been brought into the Sinai or are on the way, he said. According to Dichter, smugglers who previously dealt in drugs and women trafficking via the Sinai have moved into the weapons business. As for Israeli Arab terror activities, Dichter said that Iran is trying to penetrate via the Hizbullah to Israeli Arabs and Palestinians. At present two Israeli Arabs are being held after returning from Hizbullah training bases in south Lebanon. “The Iranians are certainly aiming to create a Trojan Horse among Israeli Arabs," Dichter was quoted as saying. From the start of the year, five Israeli Arabs were arrested for independent activities and another seven were working for Palestinian groups, he said. As for east Jerusalem, Dichter said that four out of every 1,000 Arab residents are involved in terror activities. He noted that of 577 civilians killed in terror attacks since 2001, 204 of the victims were killed in Jerusalem. He termed the Hamas a "front for Iran," and the Islamic Jihad as an "entirely Iranian organization." The majority of the Tanzim cells in the West Bank serve as the basis of the Iranian infrastructure in the area and receive money and arms. Despite fears of the rise of Hamas in Gaza, Dichter said that Arafat’s Fatah is the "domineering force," and has the majority support there, and the Hamas has "no chance" to take over.
GCC and Muslim States Urged to Form Alliance July 21….(Middle East News Line) The Gulf
Cooperation Council has been urged to establish a security alliance with Muslim
republics of the former Soviet Union. The Manama-based Bahrain Center for
Studies and Research recommended that GCC countries form an alliance with such
members of the Commonwealth of Independent States as Afghanistan, Armenia,
Azerbaijan, Georgia, Kazakhstan, Tajikistan, and Turkmenistan. The center said
such an alliance was required in wake of the US-led war against Iraq. "The
recommendation is that countries in the Gulf and South Caucasus form a joint
economic body, which will help the collective security of these two strategic
areas," the study, termed "Security of South Caucasus and the Gulf," said. "The
South Caucasus is very important because it has a lot of natural resources such
as gas and oil, which are second only to the Arabian Gulf." The report was
submitted to an international conference recently held in Iran on Central Asia
and the Caucusus. The study noted that the oil reserves of both regions
account for 68 percent of proven global reserves.
Arafat Blocking Probe of US Gaza Killings July 21….(Ha Aretz) Palestinian Authority Chairman
Yasser Arafat is blocking an investigation to find the killers of three American
security guards attacked in the Gaza Strip last year, a senior US official said
Tuesday. The United States has persistently complained the Palestinians have
failed to investigate fully the bombing of a US diplomatic convoy but officials
had not directly blamed Arafat for the handling of the probe before. "There has
been no satisfactory resolution of this case. We can only conclude that there
has been a political decision taken by the chairman [Arafat] to block further
progress in this investigation," Deputy Assistant Secretary of State David
Satterfield told lawmakers.
Ten Commandments Monument on Tour 
July 21….(Agape Press) The Ten Commandments granite monument that was the centerpiece of a battle over the public display of God's law last year is now out of the closet. Last August, a federal judge ordered Roy Moore, then chief justice of the Supreme Court of Alabama, to remove the 5,280-pound monument from the lobby of the state judicial building. Moore refused, and the monument was eventually removed and locked in a closet in the building. But last week, Moore signed a contract with American Veterans in Domestic Defense to take the monument from the courthouse and take it on a tour of America. Moore says while he is sad the monument is leaving, he believes the time is right for a national tour. "I'm happy that people will finally be able to see what has so offended the ACLU and Southern Poverty and Americans United for Separation and State, and what so offended justices that they put a shroud over the monument," Moore says. The ACLU, the SPLC, and Americans United for Separation were among the groups that initiated the lawsuit that eventually got the monument removed. American Veterans Standing for God and Country, which is part of AVIDD, is handling the arrangements for the tour. AVIDD member Wiley Drake, a pastor, says the tour will make a major statement. "It's very important because we have the precedent back in the Old Testament when God's people had the Ark of the Covenant; the Ten Commandments were a part of the Ark of the Covenant," he says, "and it was the presence of the Ten Commandments that made God's people successful. We believe that is much needed today." "We need now to bring back into public view the Ten Commandments as the basic principle of God's Holy Word and the basis for which our justice system was founded," Drake continues. "This nation was founded for the advancement of the Christian faith." The monument, removed from Montgomery's judicial building on Monday night, will tour the country through October. The tour is slated to begin later this month in Tennessee. According to Drake, the tour could wind up at a Christian rally on the National Mall in Washington this fall.
UN Demands Israel Tear Down its Security Wall July 21….(Jerusalem Post) The United Nations has demanded that Israel tear
down its security wall-fence. Israeli diplomatic officials however said
Wednesday that Israel will continue building the security fence, despite the
United Nations General Assembly resolution condemning Israel for its
construction. The UN resolution calls for Israel to dismantle it immediately.
"After a thousand Israeli fatalities in the last four years, and 150 suicide
bombing attacks, Israel has every moral right to complete the fence as planned,"
said former Israeli ambassador to the UN, Dore Gold. UN: Israel should pay reparations to the Palestinians The UN General Assembly overwhelmingly approved the
resolution that demanded that Israel comply with an advisory International Court
of Justice ruling to dismantle the security fence and pay reparations to the
Palestinians. Al-Kidwa: Vote is 'magnificent' The Palestinian observer to the UN Nasser al-Kidwa, on the other hand, praised the vote as "magnificent," calling it "perhaps the most important development in the situation since the UN partition plan." It is time now for implementation, compliance, and, at a later stage, additional measures," al-Kidwa told the assembly. He pledged to press for a binding Security Council resolution, which the US has already vowed to veto. The 191-member world body voted after lengthy negotiations between the Arab League and the European Union. Protestant Majority in US Eroding July 20….(MSNBC) The United States will no longer be a majority Protestant nation in years to come, due to a precipitous decline in affiliation with many Protestant churches, a new survey has found. Between 1993 and 2002, the share of Americans who said they were Protestant dropped from 63 percent to 52 percent, after years of remaining generally stable, according to a study released Tuesday by the National Opinion Research Center at the University of Chicago. At the same time, the number of people who said they had no religion rose from 9 percent to nearly 14 percent, and many are former Protestants, the poll indicated. The study was based on three decades of religious identification questions in the General Social Survey, which the opinion center conducts to measure public trends. The United States “has been seen as white and Protestant,” said Tom Smith, director of the General Social Survey. “We’re not going to be majority Protestant any longer.” Respondents were defined as Protestant if they said they were members of a Protestant denomination, such as Episcopal Church or Southern Baptist Convention. The category included members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints and members of independent Protestant churches. Among the reasons for the decline were the large number of young people and adults leaving denominations as the number of non-Protestant immigrants increased, comprising a greater share of the population. Also, a lower percentage are being raised Protestant, Smith said. Smith said it is also possible that some former Protestants are now identifying themselves only as “Christian,” a choice on the survey. The Roman Catholic population has remained relatively stable over the period, making up about 25 percent of the US population. People who said they belonged to other religions, including Islam, Orthodox Christianity or Eastern faiths, increased from 3 percent to 7 percent between 1993 and 2002, while the share of people who said they were Jewish remained stable at just under 2 percent.
Bush Cites Iran for Aid to al Qaeda July 20….(Washington Times) President Bush yesterday accused Iran of harboring and aiding top al Qaeda terrorists, but he stopped short of charging that Tehran was directly involved in the September 11 attacks. Using stern language against a nation that he has labeled a member of an "axis of evil," the president said his administration is examining whether Iran had any connection with the 2001 terrorist attacks that killed nearly 3,000 at the World Trade Center and the Pentagon and in Pennsylvania. "We're digging into the facts to determine if there was one," Mr. Bush said from the Oval Office. "They're harboring al Qaeda leadership there, and we've asked that they be turned over to their respective countries." But the president reiterated that acting CIA Director John McLaughlin has said, "There was no direct connection between Iran and the attacks of September the 11th." Nevertheless, Mr. Bush vowed to "continue to look and see if the Iranians were involved." Reports emerged yesterday that an Iranian general collaborated with al Qaeda to arrange the transit through Iran of nine of the September 11 hijackers. Mr. Bush, who said in his 2002 State of the Union address that Iraq, Iran and North Korea make up an "axis of evil," also said yesterday that Iran is reconstituting its nuclear-weapons program. "They've got a nuclear-weapons program that they need to dismantle. We're working with other countries to encourage them to do so," he said. The Bush administration vehemently has opposed Iran's civilian nuclear-power program, saying the oil-rich country does not need such a program and is using it as a cover to open a nuclear-weapons program. Meanwhile yesterday, Israel accused Iran of resuming the production of enriched uranium, which can be used to build atomic bombs. A military intelligence officer also told a parliamentary committee that he could not rule out the possibility that the Lebanese fundamentalist Shi'ite movement Hezbollah could acquire non-conventional weapons from Iran, Israeli military radio reported. In Washington, Mr. Bush said Iran must "stop funding terrorist organizations such as Hezbollah that create great dangers in parts of the world." "I have long expressed my concerns about Iran. After all, it's a totalitarian society where free people are not allowed to exercise their rights as human beings. I have made it clear that if the Iranians would like to have better relations with the United States, there are some things they must do," he said. White House spokesman Scott McClellan said the President's comments are consistent with his doctrine: Nations that harbor terrorists are just as dangerous as the terrorists themselves. "What this president is doing is pursuing the threats that we face and confronting those threats before they have a chance to fully materialize, whether it's Iran, Iraq, North Korea or elsewhere.
Presbyterian Church Defames Christianity FOJ Note: I had planned to criticize the Presbyterian
Church, USA for it’s idiotic stance in regards to the Israeli-Palestinian
Conflict, but this article by Dennis Prager says it as well as it can be said.
The Christian community has got to come to the realization that Israel is God’s
chosen people, and that it is HE that is involved in and presenting the
geo-political drama for the world stage in these Last Days. Christian Zionism is
Biblical, and the Church needs to get that fact discovered! (Psalms 129:5Let
them all be confounded and turned back that hate Zion.)
US 'in line of fire' in China-Taiwan War July 20….(UPI) The ingredients for a confrontation
between China and Taiwan are growing and the United States' mediation is a
precarious lid on the pressure pot of rising East Asian tensions. With Beijing's
growing belligerence towards an uncooperative separatist entity, we may be
heading for a "violent collision within a decade," warned Ted Galen Carpenter of
the Cato Institute, at a Capitol Hill briefing, Friday. Carpenter summed up the
current policy of the People's Republic of China towards Taiwan, which it
regards as nothing more than a renegade province:
"Carrots are held out to the Taiwanese if they accept the
one-China principle without reservation but also are a warning that there would
be dire consequences to Taiwan if that entity continued its separatism phase."
China is continuing the deployment of over 500 missiles aimed at Taiwan, as the
issue heats up. Given recent developments in Taipei, such as the reelection of
President Chen Shui-bian and the growing strength of the Democratic Progressive
Party General, it seems that the rift in China-Taiwan relations is only going to
widen further. Chen's government is girding the Taiwanese people with an
increasingly isolationist agenda, much to the chagrin of PRC diplomats who view
the island as part of mainland territory and are pushing for reunification with
communist China.
Iraq PM, Jordan King Discuss Oil Pipeline July 20….(My Way) Iraq's interim prime minister, making his first regional tour since taking office, met with Jordan's King Abdullah II Monday to discuss security issues and the possibility of connecting the two countries with an oil pipeline. In a statement released after the talks, the king reaffirmed Jordan's support for Iraqi interim Prime Minister Iyad Allawi's "efforts to reinstate security and stability in Iraq." Abdullah said officials from both countries discussed establishing a Jordanian-Iraqi Higher Committee to "discuss all programs of cooperation between both countries." It will likely stress economic and security issues. Jordanian Foreign Minister Marwan Muasher said the leaders revived the idea of building an oil pipeline between the two countries, a plan that had been floated during Saddam Hussein's rule but put on the backburner because of the high costs involved. Until the outset of the US-led war to oust Saddam, Iraq was Jordan's only oil supplier, covering the kingdom's daily requirement of 90,000 barrels of fuel and crude oil. Muasher also said Iraq wanted Jordan to help develop economic legislation and free trade agreements. Jordan signed a free trade agreement with the United States in 2002 and Singapore this year. It is also seeking a free trade deal with the European Union. Allawi praised Jordan's support for Iraq. More than 4,000 Iraqi army and police cadets attended courses this year in Jordan under an agreement with the now-defunct US-led occupation authority. The agreement envisions the training of 32,000 Iraqi police officers over two years. Other issues expected to be discussed during Allawi's trip include the possible use of other Arab forces in Iraq and the fate of Iraqi assets frozen since the US-led war. Iraq has said it does not want Arab troops to help with peacekeeping efforts. But Abdullah said on July 1 that Jordan was willing to send troops, even though he felt Iraq's immediate neighbors were not the right people to go in because each had their own agendas in Iraq.
Annan: Arafat Must Carry out Reforms July 20….(Maariv) UN Chief Kofi Anan says PA leader
Yasser Arafat must listen to what his ministers and PM are saying. About the
Gaza situation, Anan added “steps must be taken to return power to PA”.
Palestinian Authority Prime Minister Ahmed Qorei said Monday that Gaza was in
"chaos," as he waffled back and forth on resigning. So, Palestinian Authority
President Yasser Arafat, faces an unprecedented challenge to his power, and used
his clout to name his cousin as security chief in Gaza, a move which he had to
retrace. Arafat must listen to what his ministers and prime minister are saying
and carry out reforms as Egypt, Jordan and the international community demand”,
UN Secretary General Kofi Annan said. According to Annan, “We are in the midst
of a deep crisis. Steps must be taken in order to return the power to the PA”.
Annan’s criticism of Arafat comes less than a week after UN Middle East envoy
Terje Roed-Larson lashed out at the Palestinian leader, stirring uproar among
Palestinian leaders. Larson said, “The fact that Arafat is locked up in the
Mukata in Ramallah is no excuse for the PA’s complete lack of cooperation in
clamping down on terror organizations. The paralysis cannot be blamed solely on
the IDF”. According to Larson, who addressed the UN’s Security Council, Arafat
is personally responsible for torpedoing the Egyptian initiatives to bring
together the Palestinian preventative security apparatuses.
Clinton Security Chief Steals Secret Memos! July 20….(FOJ) President Clinton's national security adviser, Sandy Berger, finds himself being the focus of a Justice Department investigation after removing some highly classified terrorism documents and handwritten notes from a secure reading room during preparations for the September 11th commission hearings. Sandy Berger's home and office were searched earlier this year by FBI agents armed with warrants after he voluntarily returned documents to the National Archives. However, still missing are some drafts of a sensitive after-action report on the Clinton administration's handling of al-Qaida terror threats during the December 1999 millennium celebration. Berger served as Clinton's national security adviser for all of the president's second term and most recently has been informally advising Democratic presidential candidate John Kerry. Former President Bill Clinton asked Berger last year to review and select the administration documents that would be turned over to the commission. The officials said the missing documents were highly classified, and included critical assessments about the Clinton administration's handling of the millennium terror threats as well as identification of America's terror vulnerabilities at airports to sea ports. The sensitive after-action report on the foiled Millennium bomb plot includes portions that reveal that the Clinton Administration knew that Al-Qaida operatives had entered the US and were preparing to strike. (So why didn’t Bill Clinton share that infor with President Bush?) In testimony before the 9/11 Commission in April, Attorney General John Ashcroft detailed the highly classified March 2000 document, saying it contained a set of sweeping recommendations on how to combat the al-Qaida threat that were completely ignored by the Clinton White House. The NSC's Millennium After-Action Review declares that the United States barely missed major terrorist attacks in 1999, with luck playing a major role," Ashcroft told the Commission. "Among the many vulnerabilities in homeland defenses identified, the Justice Department's surveillance and FISA operations were specifically criticized for their glaring weaknesses." "It is clear from the review," declared Ashcroft, "that actions taken in the Millennium period should not be the operating model for the US government." The Millennium plot review warned the Clinton administration "of a substantial al-Qaida network and affiliated foreign terrorist presence within the US, capable of supporting additional terrorist attacks here," the Bush attorney general said. "Furthermore, fully seventeen months before the September 11 attacks, the review recommends disrupting the al Qaida network and terrorist presence here using immigration violations, minor criminal infractions, and tougher visa and border controls," he explained. Ashcroft's comments suggested why a former Clinton national security official might not want the information contained in the Millennium review to ever see the light of day. (thus the need to STEAL them for the old boss, Mr. Clinton) "Despite the warnings and the clear vulnerabilities identified by the NSC in 2000," he told the Commission, "no new disruption strategy to attack the al-Qaida network within the United States was deployed. It was ignored in the Department's five-year counter-terrorism strategy." (It seems to me that we now need another 9-11 Commission to investigate the Clinton NSC team.) No wonder our country is in such a mess!Israel 'ready' to Strike Iran July 19….(World Net Daily) Israel has conducted military exercises for a pre-emptive strike against several of Iran's nuclear power facilities and is ready to attack if Russia supplies Iran with rods for enriching uranium, Israeli officials told reporters. An Israeli defense source in Tel Aviv told the London Sunday Times, which first published the story, that "Israel will on no account permit Iranian reactors, especially the one being built in Bushehr with Russian help to go critical." The source was also quoted as saying that any strike on Iran's reactors would probably be carried out by long-range F-15I jets, flying over Turkey, with simultaneous operations by commandos on the ground. Russia is expected to deliver the enriching rods, currently being stored at a Russian port, late next year after a dispute over financial terms is resolved. "If the worst comes to the worst and international efforts fail," the source said, "we are very confident we'll be able to demolish the ayatollah's nuclear aspirations in one go." The source explained that any strike could be accompanied by an attack on other Iranian targets, including a facility at Natanz, where the Iranians have attempted to enrich uranium, and a plant at Arak, which International Atomic Energy Agency inspectors suspect of nuclear activity. The Sunday Times also quoted a senior US official warning of a pre-emptive Israeli strike if Russia continues cooperating with the Iranians. He said Washington was unlikely to block Israeli attacks against Iran. The paper quoted a classified document on the Iranian threat which was presented to Prime Minister Ariel Sharon earlier this year and which the paper claims to have seen. The document is entitled "The Strategic Future of Israel.” The report, drafted by four of Israel's senior defense experts, says "All enemy targets should be selected with the view that their destruction would promptly force the enemy to cease all nuclear/biological/chemical exchanges with Israel." The report also called on Israel to develop a multi-layered ballistic missile defense system and described Iran as a "suicide nation," recommending "targeted killings" of members of the country's elite, including its leading nuclear scientists. Iran signed the Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty and has obligated itself to random inspections supervised by the IAEA. But the treaty allows Iran to produce nuclear material as long as it can plausibly claim the production is for "peaceful purposes." Experts warn that Iran can build the infrastructure needed to make nuclear weapons, telling inspectors they need the material for "energy and nuclear medicine research," and then kick out the inspectors, renounce the treaty and quickly assemble a nuclear arsenal, as did North Korea, which is now said to have ten nuclear warheads. Under the Iranian deal with Moscow, waste produced at the Bushehr plant containing plutonium that could be used in bomb-making would be shipped back to Russia for storage, but the material must first be cooled, providing Iran with what Washington fears could be up to two years in which to extract the plutonium. The paper quotes Israeli sources as saying that a quarter ton of plutonium could be produced each a year if Bushehr is fully functional, enough for 20 bombs. The Sunday Times reports Israeli sources fear a pre-emptive strike against Iranian nuclear facilities could provoke "a ferocious response," which could involve Lebanese-based rocket attacks on northern Israel or terrorist attacks against Jewish and Israeli targets abroad.
US Presbyterian Church calls for Sanctions on Israel July 19….(Jerusalem Post) Leaders of the Presbyterian Church in the US approved a divestment campaign against Israel in a series of annual resolutions that included a condemnation of Israel's security fence, a decision to continue funding churches aimed at converting Jews to Christianity and a disavowal of Christian Zionism as a legitimate theological stance. In a vote of 431 to 62, the 216th General Assembly of the Presbyterian Church USA compared Israel's policies to those of South Africa and approved gathering data to support a selective divestment of holdings in multinational corporations doing business in Israel/ Palestine. The church's liaison to the Middle East, Rev. Victor Makari, noted after the vote that if nothing else seems to have changed the policy of Israel toward Palestinians, we need to send a clear and strong message. In a letter to the church's leader Clifton Kirkpatrick, Anti-Defamation League interfaith affairs director Rabbi Gary Bretton-Granatoor called the resolutions offensive and distressing. To assert that there is a moral equivalency between the racist policy of apartheid and the efforts to protect the citizenry of Israel is unconscionable, Bretton-Granatoor wrote.
Regime Change in Iran if Bush Wins? July 19….(Jerusalem Post) Following leaked reports yesterday that Israel is ready to strike against several of Iran's nuclear power facilities if Russia supplies the Ayatollah's with rods for enriching uranium, a senior U.S. official said America will take actions to overturn the regime in Iran if President Bush is elected for a second term. The official, speaking on condition of anonymity, told the London Times the Bush Administration would provide assistance to Iran's "hugely dissatisfied" population to help them revolt against the ruling theocracy. The U.S. would not use military force, as in Iraq, but "if Bush is re-elected there will be much more intervention in the internal affairs of Iran," said the official, who stressed the war on terror would "continue to be relentless." The Times said the official hinted at a possible military strike against Iran's nuclear facilities, explaining there was a window of opportunity for destroying Iran's main nuclear complex at Bushehr next year that would close if Russia delivered crucial fuel rods, which are currently sitting in a Russian port. Israel has said that if the rods, which are needed to enrich uranium, are shipped, it would strike several of Iran's nuclear facilities. The official also said Britain, France and Germany should take a tougher line on Iran, voicing disdain with the Europeans Union for its attempts to defuse the Iranian nuclear threat through diplomacy. The official dismissed suggestions Washington would hesitate to seek regime change in Iran, and stressed the Iranian population is extremely dissatisfied with the mullahs, and with Iran's sluggish economy. Despite the US and Israeli threats, one of Iran's top ruling clerics vowed yesterday the Islamic republic would continue to pursue its controversial nuclear program. "We are resolute. It is worth achieving it at any cost," Ayatollah Ahmad Jannati, head of the Guardians Council, said.
Sharon Calls for French Jews to Come Home July 19….(Jerusalem Post) Israeli Prime Minister Sharon, whose office has been planning a visit to France has found out that he is not welcome in light of his call to French Jews to immigrate to Israel. Israeli diplomatic officials said that Maurice Gourdault-Montagne, French President Jacques Chirac's personal diplomatic advisor, spoke to Israeli diplomat Jacques Revah and informed him that as a result of Sharon's call to French Jewry to leave France, "there is no reason to see Sharon." Sharon, during a speech to the leadership of the United Jewish Communities on Sunday, called on France's 600,000 Jews to immigrate to Israel "immediately." "If I have to advocate to our brothers in France, I would tell them one thing: move to Israel, as early as possible." Sharon said that he calls on Jews from around the world to immigrate to Israel, but that this is especially critical now for French Jews because of the blatant anti-Semitism that prevails in France. "That's what I say to Jews all around the world, but there I think it's a must, and they have to move immediately."
9/11 Commission Finds Ties Between al-Qaeda and Iran July 19….(World Net Daily) Next week's much anticipated final report by a bipartisan commission on the origins of the 9/11 attacks will contain new evidence of contacts between al-Qaeda and Iran, just weeks after the Bush Administration has come under fire for overstating its claims of contacts between al-Qaeda and Saddam Hussein's Iraq. A senior US official told TIME that the Commission has uncovered evidence suggesting that between eight and ten of the 14 "muscle" hijackers, that is, those involved in gaining control of the four 9/11 aircraft and subduing the crew and passengers, passed through Iran in the period from October 2000 to February 2001. Sources also tell TIME that Commission investigators found that Iran had a history of allowing al-Qaeda members to enter and exit Iran across the Afghan border. This practice dated back to October 2000, with Iranian officials issuing specific instructions to their border guards, in some cases not to put stamps in the passports of al-Qaeda personnel, and otherwise not harass them and to facilitate their travel across the frontier. These findings follow a Commission staff report, released in June, which suggested that al-Qaeda may have collaborated with Hezbollah and its Iranian sponsors in the 1996 bombing of the Khobar Towers, a key American military barracks in Saudi Arabia.
Senate Vote On Marriage Weakened National Security July 19….(Watch.org) The United States is arguably not mentioned in end-time prophecy and the US Senate's vote last week that favored homosexual marriage over traditional marriage may be a key reason. The Senate endangered America's national security because no society in the history of the world ever survived embracing homosexuality. Picture this: A nation where there is a doubling of child suicide and severe depression is rampant among children. Some 80 percent of the youth population is been born out of wedlock, and the rate continues to increase as 60 percent of firstborn children are born out of wedlock. Cohabitation is normal and marriage is thought of as "no longer necessary." The tax rates have climbed and social services have increased to provide care for single mothers and additional services for couples who have children but are not a family. Married parenthood is in the minority and it is considered a societal norm to live together until a child is born followed by separation. Babies are raised by government-subsidized childcare workers because all single parents must work to make ends meet. There is no longer a viable family structure. This is what America will look like in the very near future with the acceptance of homosexual marriage. It's exactly what has happened in Denmark, Sweden and Norway, who have had legalized homosexual marriage or the equivalence of it for ten to 15 years. Already, leftist organizations are enjoining the battle toward destroying what remains of the nation's moral clarity. The American Civil Liberties Union says the marriage amendment is discriminatory and would harm children living in same-sex households. Many who oppose the amendment claim they are for traditional marriage, but against amending the Constitution. These are, however, the same people who fought over a decade to pass the Equal Rights Amendment, which died a slow death. They want the states to decide the issue. But when the states decide against homosexual marriage, they send in the ACLU for a court challenge. There are many reasons for the defeat of the marriage amendment in the Senate. Chief among them is the lack of leadership and moral fortitude of America's elected officials, and those who elect them. If not for the court system taking the rule of law into its own hands; if not for our elected officials buying into the secular humanism battle cry; if not for Americans of this generation caring little about morality, marriage between man and woman in holy covenant with God would not be in danger today, and neither would the national security of our nation. The only two senators who did not have even the courage to vote on the issue were Democrat presidential running mates John Kerry and John Edwards. Mr. Kerry, cowering behind a statement to the news media and wasting no opportunity to demagogue, said, "The floor of the United States Senate should only be used for the common good, not issues designed to divide us for political purposes. Our national security is at risk not only from terrorists abroad, but also from moral decay within. But we should be encouraged that we now have the perfect opportunity to rise up and proclaim the good news of Jesus Christ. God said in II Chronicles 7:14 (KJV), "If my people, which are called by my name, shall humble themselves, and pray, and seek my face, and turn from their wicked ways; then will I hear from heaven, and will forgive their sin, and will heal their land." I know that God will keep His end of the promise, but, can we keep ours? WEEK OF JULY 12 THROUGH JULY 19
Some Pastors Oppose Marriage Amendment July 16….(Columbia Tribune) Four Mid-Missouri clergymen and a retired minister gathered outside the Boone County Courthouse yesterday to signal their opposition to a state constitutional amendment that would limit marriage to a man and a woman, a move that is directly opposite what many Church and pastors are declaring. The news conference was sponsored by the Constitution Defense League, which opposes the amendment that Missouri voters will decide on Aug. 3. The speakers represented a variety of faiths, although CDL organizer Carol Snively said each was speaking on his own and not on behalf of his church. The pastor-speakers opposed the amendment that would reinforce a state statute that prohibits gay marriage. Amendment proponents have said it’s necessary because a judge could declare the state law unconstitutional. The Rev. John Baker of First Baptist Church said that the amendment should be a "nonissue" because of the state law and that it "would write real discrimination into our state constitution." "The public needs to know that there are strong, faith-filled Christian persons of many denominations who are against this amendment and who do stand for liberty and justice for all," Baker said. The Rev. Jack Barden of First Presbyterian Church in Fulton said it seemed like only the Christian voices supporting the amendment were being heard in the public debate. "I want people to know that there are Christians who don’t believe in codifying hatred and fear into our constitution," Barden said. "There are Christians who believe that God wants a more inclusive world and includes all those, especially those who have been marginalized and oppressed by our society and by our own faith communities." Asked about Bible passages that condemn homosexuality, the ministers indicated that those verses have been misinterpreted. Baker, whose wife is legislative candidate Judy Baker, said "a very careful reading can bring new understanding other than the traditional, narrow views that are often applied to" the passages "with quick, hasty readings." The Rev. Fred Brandenburg of Columbia United Church of Christ said the Bible has been used to justify slavery and war. "So you can use it to justify many things, but that doesn’t make it right," he said. Amendment proponents are looking to local churches and their congregations as key allies. The Coalition to Protect Marriage in Missouri has produced brochures that can be downloaded from the Internet and inserted into church bulletins, and Missouri’s Catholic bishops have urged parishioners to support the amendment. Ed Phillips, adult ministry pastor at Columbia’s Evangelical Free Church, said that rather than take an official position on the amendment, his church has taught that homosexuality is wrong according to the Bible. Phillips said there has been a movement to reinterpret the Bible’s condemnation of homosexuality in an effort to legitimize something that "is obviously wrong in Scripture."
The Lamb is Coming Back as a Lion! 
July 16….(FOJ) The prophet Ezekiel was given a vision of
the great day when the Lord shall return to this world. Ezekiel saw the Lord
approaching Jerusalem from the East. Ezekiel 43:1-4 Afterward he brought me
to the gate, even the gate that looketh toward the east: And, behold, the glory
of the God of Israel came from the way of the east: and his voice was like a
noise of many waters: and the earth shined with his glory. And it was according
to the appearance of the vision which I saw, even according to the vision that I
saw when I came to destroy the city: and the visions were like the vision that I
saw by the river Chebar; and I fell upon my face. And the glory of the Lord came
into the house (new Millennial temple) by the way of the gate whose
prospect is toward the east. Disappointed, But Not Defeated July 16….(Gary Bauer) This weeks vote in the United
States Senate against traditional marriage was deeply disappointing. I sat in
the Senate gallery for two hours today listening to this historic debate. We
were well served by Majority Leader Frist, Senators Santorum, Brownback and
Hatch, all of whom delivered outstanding speeches in defense of traditional
marriage and the family. Among the most bizarre statements, repeated over and
over again by many Senate liberals, was the notion that the Senate had more
important issues to debate and that senators were wasting their time. I had to
wonder if they could really hear themselves, but that is the liberal, elitist
mindset, defending the family is "a waste of time." They just don't get it. I
can't think of anything more important for the Senate to be debating. The fate
of the family will be the fate of this nation! As the family breaks downs and
deteriorates, so will society and there's no government program big enough that
can put the pieces back together again. This was a theme Senator Santorum
stressed during the three days of debate and he is absolutely right! Let me
offer a few observations: The American people support traditional marriage; we
represent the overwhelming majority on this issue. Virtually every senator went
to the Senate floor to state on the record their belief that marriage should
remain the union of one man and one woman. They did so because they were deluged
by phone calls, faxes, letters and emails in support of traditional marriage.
Only one senator to my knowledge, Ted Kennedy of Massachusetts, indicated that
homosexual "marriage" was a good thing. That's quite a stinging rebuke to the
homosexual community, which has invested so much in fighting this amendment.
Only one senator was willing to embrace their extreme agenda! Yet, half of these
senators then turned right around and voted against their own views. Why?
Because they are betting you are stupid. They think they can confuse you with
rhetorical games and they are hoping you will forget about this issue. They want
to let the courts do their "dirty work" for them while avoiding any
responsibility. But this is only one vote and it won't be the last vote. Don't
believe the media. They are trying desperately to spin this vote as a defeat for
faith and family. But, in doing so, the liberal reporters are having to lie to
themselves just like 50 senators did today. They are having to deny the fact
that the American people support traditional marriage. My friends, this is only
a defeat if you give up. In the days and weeks ahead, we will continue to
educate the American people about precisely what happened today and about the
desperate need to defend marriage and family. I am confident we will prevail. I
want to leave you with these words from President Ronald Reagan: "Families
stand at the center of society, so building our future must begin by preserving
family values. In Washington everyone looks out for special interest groups.
Well, I think families are pretty special. And with your help, I will continue
looking out for their interests." The Saga of Jerusalem July 15….(FOJ) Focus on Jerusalem Prophecy Ministry is
proud to present a new article entitled, “The Saga of Jerusalem.” It will appear
in the article section of FOJ this week. Senators 'Cowed' by Homosexual Lobbyists July 14….(World Net Daily) As the US Senate debates the Federal Marriage Amendment, supporters of the measure charge a number of lawmakers are afraid to vote according to their inclinations because they fear the homosexual lobby. "Many of them are bobbing and weaving from day to day," says James Dobson, of Focus on the Family. "A distressing number of US senators and congressmen are being cowed by the homosexual lobby and are afraid to support the amendment," Dobson said in a letter to supporters of the lobby group yesterday. Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist, R-Tenn., has scheduled a cloture vote for today to prevent Democrats from filibustering. But Minority Leader Sen. Tom Daschle, D-S.D., says the amendment's supporters won't get the 60 votes they need to force a final up or down vote. Gary Bauer, a former GOP presidential candidate lobbying for the amendment, says there is only one way to interpret the outcome of the procedural vote: "Senators who support traditional marriage will vote for cloture. Senators who support homosexual 'marriage' will vote against cloture." Former Alabama Judge Roy Moore asserts a better solution is for Congress to pass his Constitution Restoration Act, which is designed to stop courts from forbidding the acknowledgement of God as the basis of law. He argues marriage between a man and a woman would be established because it is what God intended. President Bush supports the Federal Marriage Amendment, but Sen. John Kerry and his running mate Sen. John Edwards are opposed. The Democratic candidates say they are against same-sex marriage but want to leave the matter to the states, an action that would cause utter confusion around the country. Kerry's spokesman said both would be present if a final vote came up but not for a procedural vote. To pass, the measure requires approval of two-thirds of the Senate, 67 votes, and two-thirds of the House, then three-fourths of the 50 state legislatures. But Dobson believes 64 senators are prepared to vote against it, which he calls an "outrage." Dobson says some lawmakers have given "ridiculous excuses" for not backing the measure. "Some of them claim they are unwilling to 'tamper' with the U.S. Constitution, as though it is somehow evil to change it," he says. "Meanwhile, many of these same so-called 'purists' welcome and even encourage the tactics of activist judges who regularly amend the Constitution not by democratic means, but by independent judicial decree!"
Palestinians Threaten America! July 14….(FOJ) You won’t see this news posted in your evening newspaper or covered by the major TV networks, but the Palestinian UN representative has issued a threat against the United States that is comparable to the terrorist threats from Al Qaeda! The Arab states in the Middle East plan to call for an emergency session of the UN General Assembly to demand that Israel comply with a World Court ruling that the West Bank separation fence is illegal and must be dismantled. The Arab Group of governments at the United Nations called on the 191-nation UN assembly to meet on Friday to take up a draft resolution seeking to implement last week's ruling. But with a showdown in the council all but certain to draw a US veto, Arab nations will first make a push for a non-binding resolution in the UN General Assembly on Friday, Palestinian UN representative Nasser al-Kidwa said. A draft of that resolution reveals that the Arabs (Palestinians) are threatening the US about its unflagging US support of Israel, warning that an American veto could further complicate US hopes of transforming Iraq and the region. PA representative Kidwa said the United States could not try to forge a "new and greater Middle East based on the rule of law and democratic values, and at the same time throw the rule of law in the garbage when it comes to Israel." The General Assembly can recommend action but only the Security Council has the legal authority to compel states to heed its decisions. The United States has frequently used its veto power on the council to block resolutions condemning Israel, a policy that Kidwa said he hoped would be reconsidered in light of the court opinion. "The debate over the wall is over," he told a press conference at UN headquarters in New York. "If Israel does not comply with its obligations as determined in the (court) opinion, it will become officially, judicially, an outlaw," he said. He said Israel was profiting from "the automatic protection, many times illegal protection provided by the United States, making the US an accomplice to a criminal nation!"
Israel Leery of Arafat’s Sudden Death 
July 14….(FOJ) Not only is Israel under the threat of tremendous world ire if it harms Yasser Aafat, it must also deal with the distinct possibility that it will be blamed and persecuted for his natural death due to old age. Every leader in the world has warned Israel about isolating and imposing travel restrictions on the infamous terror leader. EU, UN, and other world figures have routinely cautioned Israel that Arafat is the duly elected leader of the Palestinians and only he can be negotiated with, and that if Israel acts to kill him, that Israel will be sanctioned by the international community. Recently, Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat held up a discussing Israel’s fears abut his death during a meeting at his office in the West Bank town of Ramallah. An Israeli contingency plan for the event of Yasser Arafat's death says Israel must prevent his burial in Jerusalem and predicts chaos in the Palestinian territories accompanied by regional instability.
Al-Qaida Has Nuclear Weapons Inside US FOJ Note: Focus on Jerusalem advises its readers to
read the following article with the realization that our intelligence community
(CIA, FBI) have already been castigated in the news media, and by Congress for
being a dismal failure in defending the security of the US. If it be so that the
9-11 Commission can honestly declare that our intelligence is a shambles, and
pass blame for 9-11 onto the CIA, then who is to say that Al Qaeda or any other
terrorist cell is not further advanced than anybody dares to imagine. This story
should cause Christians to pray earnestly for national revival, for it is a
certainty that God, (our true and only reliable defense) has removed his
hedge of protection on our rebellious nation.
Arafat Training Child Suicide Killers 
July 14….(FOJ) Children as young as 10 years old are being recruited to fight for the Palestinian terrorist organizations that are seeking Israel’s total destruction. The hero of the child-camps is Yasser Arafat and the many Shahids that have committed so-called martyrdom against Israel. The recruits, some of whom are dwarfed by their Soviet AK-47 assault rifles, are taught how to carry out ambushes. They are also made to maneuver an obstacle course, crawling under barbed wire and leaping through hoops of fire while their Jihad instructors fire live bullets overhead. Sky News reporter Emma Hurd recently witnessed one such training session in which a child militant, dressed as a Jewish settler complete with yarmulke skull-cap, was ambushed in his car. Gunmen pulled the "settler" from his vehicle and Hurd was told if this had been real, the Jewish settler would have been killed. She spoke to two 10-year-old recruits. One of them named Mustafa, said he wanted to shoot down Israeli aircraft and blow up Israeli tanks. The child terror camps are run by a group called the Palestinian Popular Resistance Committee, which said the next generation of Palestinians needed to know how to fight the Israeli "occupation". The boy terrorists even "graduate" at the end of their training, receiving a Jihad certificate from the camp commander. Annan: Israel Must Trust Safety to PA July 13….(JNEWSWIRE) Even as “Palestinian terrorists”
were busy murdering another Israeli and wounding dozens more Sunday, UN
Secretary General Kofi Annan insisted Jerusalem abide by the rulings of the
World Court and tear down its anti-terror fence. Annan holds the common Western
socialist opinion that the only legitimate defense for the Jews of Israel is
that provided for them by Yasser Arafat's PLO - once recognized as the world's
foremost anti-Israel terror group. UN Secretary General Kofi Annan says; “While
we accept that the government of Israel has the responsibility and duty to
protect its citizens, any action that it takes has to be in conformity with
international law.” As with most of the international community, Annan’s
position has long been that Israel should place the security of its citizens in
the hands of Yasser Arafat’s PLO, which he called on to increase their efforts
to foil future anti-Jewish terror attacks. In typical fashion, however, Arafat
sidestepped responsibility for Sunday’s attack by accusing Israel of planning
and perpetrating the fatal Tel Aviv bombing itself. This despite the fact that
his own Fatah Al Aqsa Brigades had claimed credit for the killing. Israel must
respect the rulings of the International Court of Justice, UN chief Kofi Annan
said Sunday, joining a chorus of Arab voices insisting the Jewish state adhere
to the court’s decision that its security fence must come down. Officials in
Jerusalem have slammed the court for completely ignoring the reason Israel was
forced to construct the fence, at great cost to itself, in the first place,
“Palestinian” terrorism. Tellingly, several of the nations that joined in
bashing Israel’s fence have themselves erected barriers on disputed lands in
order to keep Islamic terrorists out of their sovereign territories. Annan has
long belonged to that part of the international community that insists the only
legitimate form of security for Israel’s Jews is that provided by the
Palestinian Authority. The terms of the Oslo Accords obligate the PA to
provide Israelis with security by disarming and dismantling the terrorist
organizations operating out of territories under its control. That
commitment has never been fulfilled, leading to efforts by Israel to defend its
citizens by launching anti-terror military operations, setting up roadblocks and
now building a fence, all of which have been condemned by the world. Following
the death of a 19-year-old Israeli girl and the wounding of more than 30 others
in a terrorist bombing in Tel Aviv Sunday, Annan issued his usual call for the
PA to increase its non-existent efforts to curb future attacks. But PLO chief
Yasser Arafat sidestepped responsibility for the attack by making the audacious
claim that Israel itself had masterminding the fatal bombing in order to deflect
international attention from the ICJ’s ruling on its fence. "We are against such
kinds of bombings, and you must never forget that the Israelis are completely
behind it as they have been in the past,” the unrepentant terror chief told
reporters outside his Ramallah headquarters. "You know who is behind these acts,
which are aimed at harming the court decision. Europe knows it, the Americans,
the Egyptians, the Jordanians, and the Israelis also know it,” Arafat said.
Israel Told to Disarm While Iran Pledges "Death To Israel" July 13….(FOJ) In the latest fit of diplomatic moral equivalence, the UN’s International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) last week visited Israel, attempting to persuade the Jewish State to declare formally its nuclear capability, eventually leading to a supposedly nuclear arms-free Middle East. The UN hopes to persuade Israel that its cooperation or unilateral disarmament could lead to lasting Middle East peace. But why is Israel suddenly being investigated when the Iranian mullahs, themselves a nuclear power or soon-to-be one, pledge “Death to Israel” and when every single Arab government openly foments rabid anti-Semitism, and many openly support terrorists operations against Israel. From Israel’s vantage point, knowing that almost the entire Arab world prefers its annihilation, and the rest probably wouldn’t mind it, (Europe included) the only answer would seem to be using their nukes to destroy the Arab nuke programs before they become operative. Being the dominant nuclear power in the region is a powerful deterrent, but what does Israel do as its enemies go nuclear? Iran has already duped the IAEA, for example, as has North Korea, and it continues to openly flout the UN’s supposed watchdog agency. There seems to be no solution to this nuclear-WMD weapons nightmare threat. Who can trust whom? There are think tanks and consortium groups feverishly at work on this problem all over the world. But an answer doesn’t seem to be in the offing. It seems apparent that someday there is going to be a nuclear or WMD attack somewhere that will force the world to take emergency steps toward a system of Global checks and balances on security. And Bible Prophecy foretells that this “safety-security-peace” anti-Armageddon syndrome scenario will be just the stage that will open the door for the Antichrist.
Surviving a Suicide Bombing July 13….(Jack Kinsella) The terrorist bombs killing innocent men, women and children in Israel carry a heavy price. It isn’t just the lives that are snuffed out in a moment. The bombs usually consist of five pounds of explosives. Besides the mutilated corpses, there are always a high number of injured and wounded. But the survivors literally become the living dead. Here's what happens when a suicide bomber strikes. In the immediate vicinity of the bomb there is a tremendous fireball accompanied by the concussion of the force of the explosion. The explosion sends out shrapnel, in this case, metal ball bearings and bolts, in all directions, in case the fireball doesn't do the job. Jagged pieces of metal and round ball bearings, traveling as fast as bullets, create a killing zone as everyone in the immediate vicinity is shredded from the knees up, before the shrapnel passes through them to hit whoever is behind until somebody's body finally stops the momentum. To be 'wounded' in a bombing attack can mean anything from a 'minor' injury like a leg wound, (picture being hit in the shin with a fifty caliber bullet) to being blinded, burned and limb-less. Israeli hospitals are filled with the 'survivors' of Arab bombings, many of which are existing on life support systems or in irreversible comas. These represent 'wounded survivors', but in many cases, they are condemned to a living death. And then there is the aspect of emotional and mental trauma that a suicide survivor must deal with forever more.
The Absurdity of anti-Israel Mania July 13….(Omega Letter) Satirist Dennis Miller recently
did a rant on the Mid-east situation in which he delivered a brilliant analogy
to frame the Arab-Israeli conflict as it actually exists: "Chew this around and
spit it out: Five hundred million Arabs; five million Jews. Think of all the
Arab countries as a football field, and Israel as a pack of matches sitting in
the middle of it. And now these same folks swear that if Israel gives them half
of that pack of matches, everyone will be pals." "My friend Kevin Rooney made a
gorgeous point the other day: Just reverse the numbers. Imagine five hundred
million Jews and five million Arabs. I was stunned at the simple brilliance of
it." "Can anyone picture the Jews strapping belts of razor blades and dynamite
to themselves? Of course not. Or marshaling every fiber and force at their
disposal for generations to drive a tiny Arab State into the sea? Nonsense. Or
dancing for joy at the murder of innocents? Impossible. Or spreading and
believing horrible lies about the Arabs baking their bread with the blood of
children? Disgusting." "No, as you know, left to themselves in a world of peace,
the worst Jews would ever do to people is debate them to death." Miller is
right, the simple brilliance of reversing the numbers illuminates a truth that
every thinking person would know, if they broke from tradition and thought for
themselves, instead of letting CNN types do their thinking for them in
thirty-second sound bytes. More PLO Terror Proves Israel Needs the Wall July 12….(David Dolan) Israeli civilian bus passengers have again been targeted by Palestinian terrorists in the first such attack since a Jerusalem city bus was blown up near my home on February 22. However, the death toll was thankfully limited to one victim this time, since the attack was not carried out by a Palestinian homicide terrorist. Instead, a bomb was planted in some weeds next to a bus stop in Tel Aviv, apparently set off by remote control (probably via a cell phone attached to the explosive charge). Still, the blast was powerful enough to kill a woman standing at the bus stop, and to injure over 20 other Israeli civilians, four seriously. The explosion occurred as the city bus was stopping to board passengers at 7:00 AM this morning. Most significantly, the attack was claimed by the Al Aksa Martyr’s terrorist group, which is funded and directed by Yasser Arafat’s mainstream PLO faction. Indeed, Palestinian Authority leaders, including “Prime Minister” Ahmed Qurei, have recently admitted that they order and fund most of the terror attacks carried out by the violent group. Resisting pressure from Egypt and others to fulfill the Road Map peace plan’s insistence that the PA crack down on Palestinian terrorist groups, Qurei stated that he will not dismantle the PLO’s “armed wing” in order to facilitate renewed peace talks with Israel. An Al Aksa spokesman said today’s blast was designed to avenge recent Israeli military operations against the group’s leaders and terrorist activists. But Palestinian media reports said it was also meant to show that attacks can still occur despite Israel’s controversial security barrier, which is designed to halt them. Israeli leaders noted that the planned central section of the barrier east of Tel Aviv has still largely not been constructed. Prime Minister Ariel Sharon reacted angrily to the latest attack, saying it only proved the need to continue construction of the security barrier. He told the weekly cabinet meeting here in Jerusalem that Friday’s World Court ruling against the barrier was “a slap in the face” of the American-led fight against international Islamic terrorism. Meanwhile Israeli officials are preparing for an onslaught of anti-Israel resolutions, sponsored by Islamic nations at the United Nations in New York, with the first one expected later this week. They noted that the World Court decision was read out by the court’s president who is from China, a nation that has illegally occupied a neighboring country, Tibet, since 1950!
China: Major Trade Deal With Arab States Hostile To Israel July 12….(Prophecy Update) In a significant showing of
strengthening foreign relations in the Middle East, China recently penned a
trade alliance with Kuwait, the United Arab Emirates, Saudi Arabia, Bahrain, the
Sultan State of Amen and Qatar, all hostile to Israel. This power move adds to
an already strong military supply agreement with Syria and coincides with
similar relationships being built between the European Union, Russia and Arab
states. China and the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) are on track to develop a
free trade zone between the nations as well to increase trade. Beneath the
ceremonial free trade banter, however, is the real deal, the Arab nations all
want to, as the Kuwaiti Prime Minister Sheikh Sabah Al-Ahmad Al-Sabah who spoke
on GCC's behalf to the Chinese says, establish a partnership with China and
enhance their comprehensive co-operation in political, economic and world
affairs. Translated, Arab nations want China's military support and China
wants Arab oil. Al Sabah used as an example of such cooperation his
appreciation that China supported Kuwaiti efforts to safeguard independence,
sovereignty and territory integrity. He said Kuwait will not waver in its
support of China on the question of Taiwan. Chinese Premier Wen Jaibao said
China is ready to use the new mechanism of group dialogue and co-operation to
deepen its collaboration with Arabian countries. Perplexing, however, is
Israel's relationship with red China. Israel is helping China develop unmanned
aerial vehicles and is selling them Tavor personal assault weapons, pilot
training systems, advanced communications and surveillance gear. Israel's
attempt to develop a closer relationship with China is motivated by billions of
dollars for their defense industry and to help offset China's relationship with
Syria.
Israel’s Security Fence has Helped July 12….(Middle East News Line) An Israeli government
report said the capability of Palestinian insurgents in the northern West Bank
dropped by 90 percent over the last year. The report cited the construction of
the security fence and barrier, which was completed in 2003 along the northern
and central areas of the West Bank, Middle East Newsline reported. "A comparison
of the number of attacks within Israel carried out by Samaria-based terrorists
after the anti-terrorist fence was built, and the number of attacks carried out
by the same terrorist groups before the building of the fence, reveals a drop of
some 90 percent in the ability of these terrorist groups to perpetrate attacks
within Israel," the Israel Foreign Ministry said in a report.
Bush Leads Support Against Gay Marriage July 12….(My Way) President Bush says legalizing gay marriage would redefine the most fundamental institution of civilization and that a constitutional amendment is needed to protect it. A few activist judges and local officials have taken it on themselves to change the meaning of marriage, Bush said Saturday in his weekly radio address. Leading the chorus of support for an amendment, Bush said, "If courts create their own arbitrary definition of marriage as a mere legal contract, and cut marriage off from its cultural, religious and natural roots, then the meaning of marriage is lost and the institution is weakened." His remarks follow the opening of Senate debate Friday on a constitutional amendment effectively banning gay marriage. Kerry and running mate Sen. John Edwards oppose gay marriage, (supposedly) but support civil unions. Bush singled out Massachusetts' Supreme Judicial Court, which called marriage an evolving paradigm. "That sends a message to the next generation that marriage has no enduring meaning, and that ages of moral teaching and human experience have nothing to teach us about this institution," he said. The President urged the House and Senate to send to the states for ratification an amendment that defines marriage in the United States as a union of a man and woman as husband and wife.
Muslim Slaughter Unfolding in Sudan July 12….(FOJ) As the world's attention was turned to
crises in the Middle East, and another round of condemnations of Israel and its
security wall, another crazed Islamic slaughter has raged for 17 months in
Sudan's Darfur region. Islamic Arab gunmen on horses and camels, backed by
bombers and helicopter gun-ships, have razed hundreds of black African villages,
killed tens of thousands and driven more than one million from their homes.
Recently US Secretary of State Powell forced UN Secretary General Kofi Anan to
highlight the holocaust in Sudan.
US Legislating Death of Family? July 12….(FOJ) Dr. James Dobson, the founder of Focus on the Family, had some surprising news on a recent visit to the nation's capital. The move for a federal marriage amendment to the Constitution to define the institution as one between one man and one woman is faltering in Congress. Congressmen are running to the tall grass," he told a gathering at the National Press Club. "They're scared to death of this issue, and they don't want to touch it with a 10-foot pole. Dobson called the push for same-sex marriage "the most dangerous national policy ever considered." He said it would "completely redefine what constitutes marriage." "Marriage has been the bedrock of civilization for 5,000 years," he continued. People say that marriage is an outmoded Christian idea. Well first of all, it started with God’s sanction in the Garden of Eden. Dobson said we throw the institution of marriage on the ash heap of history at our own peril as a civilization. "This is the most serious social experiment that will ever have been perpetrated, and if it occurs, it will have incredible effects on the family," he said. "In fact, it will destroy the traditional family." But, evidently, members of the U.S. Congress remain unconvinced. They don't think we need to protect the most basic, foundational institutional building block of Western Civilization – the family. Satan has targeted every bedrock of America’s Christian foundation and is swiftly moving his minions of Hell to destroy the United States, either through the subterfuge of the internal cultural and political decay or through devious worldwide hatred of our Judeo-Christian heritage. Legalized Gay marriage may be America’s last offense against a righteous God! WEEK OF JULY 5 THROUGH JULY 11
Europe: Bush and US are the Real Criminals July 9….(CBN) In an Iraqi court last week, Saddam Hussein called President Bush a criminal. Very few Americans took that charge seriously. But the international news media has repeatedly cast President Bush as a villain on the world stage. And for millions around the world, the message seems to have sunk in. George W. Bush may be locked in a tight race here in the U.S., but if he were running overseas, especially in Europe, he would not stand a chance. Recent polls show that globally, Bush is one of the most unpopular American presidents in modern times. It is no stretch to say most of the world hopes he loses in November. If it was a global election, George W. Bush would probably get trounced. That is especially true here in France, where anti-Bush feeling is among the highest of any European nation. The research firm, Global Market Insite, asked citizens in the G-8 economic nations who they would pick if they could vote in America's presidential election. When undecided voters are removed from the results, the GMI poll found that although Bush would beat John Kerry in the US, Kerry got 85 percent of the vote in China, 84 percent in Russia, 84 percent in Japan; 94 percent in Germany, 93 percent in France, 79 percent in Britain and 73 percent in Canada. Nobody likes the word "brainwashed," but this and other results from the poll suggest that a sustained anti-Bush, anti-US media campaign around the world, and consistently negative coverage of the Iraq war, have had their effect. The coverage of Bush and Iraq is so one-sided in Europe that it is now accepted as fact that Bush and the Iraq war are both bad, and that America is the world’s real terrorist threat. ICJ: Israeli Fence Violates International Law July 9….(Ha Aretz) The president of the International Court of Justice was Friday reading the ruling on the legality of the West Bank separation fence in The Hague. The ruling was in line with a copy of the document obtained earlier by Haaretz, and which determines that the barrier contravenes international law, must be dismantled, and that Palestinians harmed by its construction must be compensated. The ruling obtained by Haaretz, determines that, "The construction of the wall being built by Israel, the occupying Power, in the Occupied Palestinian Territory, including in and around East Jerusalem, and its associated regime, are contrary to international law." Fourteen justices supported the decision and the sole opponent was the American judge, Thomas Buerghenthal. In building the fence, the court rules, Israel violated international humanitarian law, by infringing on Palestinians' freedom of movement, freedom to seek employment, education and health. It also states that Israel violated international treaties it had signed which deal with these topics: "The construction of such a wall accordingly constitutes breaches by Israel of its various obligations under the applicable international humanitarian law and human rights instruments." The court also rules that Israel must halt construction of the fence and pull down those sections built inside the West Bank. "Israel is under an obligation to... cease forthwith the works of construction of the wall being built in the Occupied Palestinian Territory, including in and around East Jerusalem, to dismantle forthwith the structure therein situated..." the ruling says. The judges also question the route of the fence determined by Israel, saying they are "not convinced that the specific course Israel has chosen for the wall was necessary to attain its security objectives." The ruling says: "The wall, along the route chosen, and its associated regime, gravely infringe a number of rights of Palestinians residing in the territory occupied by Israel, and the infringements resulting from that route cannot be justified by military exigencies or by the requirements of national security or public order." On the issue of compensating Palestinians harmed by construction of the fence, the court rules that, "Israel is under an obligation to make reparation for all damage caused by the construction of the wall in the Occupied Palestinian Territory, including in and around East Jerusalem." The ruling also says that, "Israel is bound to comply with its obligation to respect the right of the Palestinian people to self-determination and its obligations under international humanitarian law and international human rights law. Furthermore, it must ensure freedom of access to the Holy Places that came under its control." The International Court was asked to deliberate on the issue of the security fence by a United Nations General Assembly resolution last December, and its decision, which is advisory in nature, will be presented to the world body.
Israel’s Security and Justice in the PA July 9….(News Commentary by Jack Kinsella) Wild
celebrations broke out among the hundreds of spectators after four gunmen from
the al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigades, part of President Yasser Arafat's Fatah movement,
shot father-of-two Muhammad Rafiq Daraghmeh, 45, in Qabatiya. The terrorists
dragged Daraghmeh into the square before assembled townsfolk and told them:
"This man, as you know gave information to Israel on the whereabouts of our
fighters. What should his sentence be?" "Execution!" roared the crowd. The
terrorist execution squad gunned down Daraghmeh seconds later and residents both
young and old cheered and chanted around his prone, bloodied corpse. Believers Should Prepare for Persecution July 8….(Agape Press) A Texas-based evangelist says Christians must be educated and equipped to stand against the prevailing philosophical language of the secular world. To do that, he says, believers in America need to have the same attitude as first-century Christians. Voddie Baucham was a featured speaker during the Pastor's Conference at the recent annual meeting of the Southern Baptist Convention in Indianapolis, Indiana. The young evangelist told his listeners that Christians must realize that contemporary philosophies such as religious relativism are not compatible with genuine Christianity. "When you look at religious relativism," Baucham said, "you realize that it can't work. Why? Because there are religions out there that make mutually exclusive truth claims." The speaker noted that he did not grow up going to church; rather, he was raised by a mother who was a practicing Buddhist but who later became a Christian. "What I know is this," he said: "My mother as a Zen Buddhist did not worship the same god that she worships now that she's been born again. She realized that, which is why she came to faith in Christ." The Texas-based Bible teacher insists that religions that make mutually exclusive truth claims and the religious relativism that is increasingly common in contemporary culture cannot be logically reconciled. And Baucham says the climate in today's culture is much like the climate described in the Bible's fourth chapter of Acts, when Peter and John were put into custody because they preached the exclusivity of Jesus. Christians today, he asserts, need to stand for that exclusivity, regardless of the cost. The Apostles stance was, "Do whatever you must to us, but we cannot stop speaking about what we've seen and about what we've heard. We will not shut up; you cannot stop us," the evangelist says. But he questions whether Christians today have that kind of commitment to the gospel of Christ. "I wonder, is that our attitude?" he asks, "or does our attitude say, 'Let's do whatever we have to in order to survive and make it just a little bit longer'?" Baucham warned the Southern Baptist messengers that, unless a true spiritual awakening takes place soon, believers in America need to be prepared to face real persecution for their faith.
Swedish Pastor gets Prison for Sermon July 8….(World Net Daily) A Swedish court has sentenced Ake Green, a pastor belonging to the Pentecostal movement, to a month in prison, under a law against incitement, after he was found guilty of having offended homosexuals in a sermon, according to Ecumenical News International. Green had described homosexuality as "abnormal, a horrible cancerous tumor in the body of society" in a 2003 sermon. Soren Andersson, the president of the Swedish Federation for Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender rights, said on hearing Green's jail sentence that religious freedom could never be used as a reason to offend people.
Commentary: Israel to bomb Iran? July 8….(UPI-by Arnaud de Borchgrave) As the Bush Administration concludes it cannot risk Iranian retaliation against a fragile Iraq under U.S. occupation, Israel is dusting off contingency plans to take out Iran's nuclear installations. On June 24, the key question was asked by Brent Scowcroft, former National Security Adviser to President George H.W. Bush (41): "Are we serious in our efforts to prevent (Iranian) nuclear proliferation, or will we watch the world descend into a maelstrom where weapons-grade nuclear material is plentiful, and unimaginable destructive capability is available to any country or group with a grudge against society?" It did not require an overwhelming effort of imagination for Israel's national security establishment to conclude that the Jewish state would be the first threatened by Iranian nukes. One scenario now bruited would involve a joint US-Israel precision-guided strike against the Bushehr, Natanz and Arak nuclear projects in Iran. But the Bush Administration has concluded that a US air attack against Iran would trigger a major Iranian campaign to destabilize Iraq. The two countries have a 1,458-kilometer (906 miles) common border that stretches from Turkey to the Shatt al Arab terminal on the Gulf. Iran also enjoys wide grassroots support among Iraq's dominant Shiite population. A US House of Representatives resolution last May 6 authorized "all appropriate means" to put an end to Iranian nuclear weapons development. The Senate is yet to vote on the resolution. But it leaves no doubt it is a green light for an offensive military strikes against Iran's three nuclear facilities. The worldwide reaction against a US attack on Iran's theocratic regime would almost certainly put an end to moderate dissent. Rival Shiite and Sunni Muslims in Iraq, Pakistan, Saudi Arabia, Bahrain (headquarters for the U.S. 5th Fleet) would close ranks against US interests. America's allies would denounce a return to dangerous US unilateralism after President Bush's recent moves back to multilateral diplomacy. While an "October surprise" of American air strikes to rid the world of Iran's looming nuclear threat might prove helpful to President Bush on Nov. 2, the blowback of unintended consequences would further destabilize the world's most volatile region, the Middle East. US air strikes at this juncture would quickly be equated with the CIA-engineered coup that overthrew Iran's socialist leader Mohammad Mossadegh in 1953, which many Iranians say led to the Iranian Revolution of 1978-79 that overthrew the monarchy, forced the late Shah into exile, and allowed obscurantist mullahs to rule the country. The mullahs made the excesses of the Shah's Savak secret police seem like child's play compared to the tens of thousands executed by the religious extremists and their Revolutionary Guards. Israeli leaders concluded years ago that Dr. A.Q. Khan, the father of Pakistan's nuclear bomb and the world's biggest nuclear proliferator, had sold bomb-making wherewithal to Iran and that nothing would reverse this capability short of air strikes, similar to the one Israeli fighter-bombers conducted in 1981 against Iraq's Osiraq nuclear reactor near Baghdad. It had been built with French assistance, including 27.5 pounds of 93 percent weapons-grade uranium. When Israeli intelligence confirmed Iraq's intention of producing weapons at Osiraq, Israel's then Prime Minister Menachem Begin decided military action was the only remedy. Elections then and now were a consideration. Begin feared his party would lose the next election, and the opposition Labor party would fail to preempt prior to the production of the first Iraqi nuclear bomb. Iraq was then believed to be two years away from fashioning its first nuclear weapon. So Israel had to strike before the Iraqi reactor went critical, before the first fuel was poured into the reactor, lest the surrounding community fall victim to radiation. The target was 1,100 kilometers (660 miles) from Israel. Target mock-ups were part of a full-scale dress rehearsal. Briefing the cream of IAF's pilots, IDF Chief of Staff Gen. Rafael Eitan said, "The alternative is our destruction." The surprise attack by F-15s and F-16s vaporized Osiraq in 80 seconds, too fast for Iraqi anti-aircraft gunners to get off their first salvo. Similar preparations to take out Iran's capabilities -- also judged to be two years from nuclear fruition, have been completed. Standoff, precision-guided munitions will have to be used to avoid Iran's thick air defenses, including missiles purchased from Russia. Under an $800 million contract, Russia began building Iran's Bushehr reactor in May 1995 with 150 technicians at the site. The Russian contract called for 3,000 Russian engineers and construction workers. By 1999, some 300 Russians were among the 900 working there. After several years of denial about an Iranian bomb-making potential, President Putin of late has sided with IAEA's chief Mohamed elBaradei's strong criticism of Iran's bad faith in its refusal to comply with the international inspection regime. Putin presumably realizes that a nuclear-armed Iran ruled by religious fanatics would probably be tempted to pass on dangerous stuff to Islamist guerrillas in Chechnya. Originally started during the Shah's reign in a deal with Siemens, some 2,100 German and 7,000 Iranian workers completed 85 percent of the work before the 1979 revolution. The ayatollahs then decided to drop the entire project as "anti-Islamic," before changing their minds in favor of construction in the early 1990s. Fearful anxiety prevailed among the clerics after they watched in awe the deployment of half a million American soldiers and the five weeks of saturation US bombing that preceded Operation Desert Storm, and the collapse of the Iraqi army. They watched a rerun of another US military spectacular in 2003, with yet another collapse of the Iraqi military. The Europeans still believe that political, economic and trade sanctions will eventually bring Iran into compliance. The Bush administration is on the horns of a painful dilemma. How can it claim that Iran has no right to nuclear weapons when Israel not only possesses both strategic and tactical nuclear weapons, but has several hundred in its arsenal. For the US to preempt against Iran would also undermine the Administration's last shred of credibility as an honest broker between Israel and the Palestinians. After all the blue-smoke-and-mirrors "intelligence" that justified the US invasion 15 months ago, the CIA's evidence of an Iranian nuclear bomb would have to be incontrovertible. This sets the bar impossibly high. Hence Israel's conclusion it's on its own. Bombs away? Not yet, but they've rehearsed it.
UN Pressing Israel on Nuclear Info July 7….(Jerusalem Post) If the international community
doesn't halt Iran's march to acquiring nuclear weapons, Teheran may have its
first nuclear bomb by 2008, Israel’s OC Intelligence Major-Gen. Aharon Ze'evi
said Tuesday night. Ze'evi made his comments on Channel 1, soon after the
arrival of Mohamed ElBaradei, the head of the International Atomic Energy Agency
(IAEA), for a two-day visit. Ze'evi said according to Israel's intelligence
information, Iran has no intention of halting its nuclear program, despite the
international pressure. Ze'evi said Israel believes that by the spring of 2005
the Iranians will have independent nuclear research and development capability,
and that it will take another two and a half years for Iran to build its first
nuclear weapon. Asked if Israel needs to respond, Ze'evi said that as long as
the world is taking action to halt this development, Israel should stand aside.
FOJ Note: Focus on Jerusalem Prophecy Ministry first referred to the possibility of the UN nosing into Israel’s nuclear capabilities 8 years ago. I knew the cat-and-mouse nuclear-chess games in Iraq, Iran and North Korea would ultimately lead to an intense campaign to inspect in Israel. It is apparent from Bible Prophecy that the eventual Antichrist would be required to have a hand in arranging a Middle East nuclear free zone. (Lets see now, who can we find to guarantee compliance by all parties?)
Hezbollah Has Increased Missile Arsenal July 7….(Middle East News Line) Hizbullah has significantly increased its missile and rocket arsenal over the past two years. Israeli officials said Hizbullah has received more than 1,000 missiles and a range of rockets from Iran, Iraq and Syria in 2002 and 2003. They said the weapons included anti-tank missiles, Katyusha rockets and short-range missiles. In all, officials said, Hizbullah has an estimated 12,000 rockets and missiles. They said the weapons have been deployed in southern Lebanon and presents a strategic threat to the Jewish state.
To Celebrate Independence, We must Keep Sovereignty July 7….(Phyllis Schlafly) The hand-over of power to Iraq
by the victorious American forces has stimulated public discussion about a word
that seems to have fallen in disfavor in the last few years: sovereignty. It is
the ability of one government to act without being subject to the legal control
of another government, country or international organization, restrained only by
moral principles. Sovereignty was transferred to Iraq on June 28, but when the
question came up at a US Senate hearing as to whether Iraq can the order US
troops to leave, the official answer was: not yet. Iraq won't become truly
sovereign until it can do that, which won't happen until elections establish a
permanent government. The US Constitution is based on the premise that we are a
sovereign nation and we need not obey any power unless authorized in the
Constitution. The Europeans, on the other hand, are rapidly abandoning their
national sovereignty in favor of an international bureaucracy called the
European Union. European Union representatives are using the term,
"unilateralism" as a smear word to show their disdain for America's stubborn
adherence to sovereignty. They assert the ridiculous proposition that US
actions cannot be legitimate without United Nations approval. The enemies of
sovereignty are squeamish about the term world government. They like the softer
slogan global governance, which harbors undefined concepts such as human rights,
sustainable development and international justice. Unhappily, it's not only
non-Americans who are trying to replace US sovereignty with global governance.
Former President William Jefferson Clinton told the United Nations he wanted to
put the United States into a "web" of treaties to set the ground rules for "the
emerging international system. "Clinton's chief foreign policy adviser was
notorious for his Time magazine article of July 20, 1992, "The Birth of the
Global Nation." Strobe Talbott opined that "national sovereignty wasn't such a
great idea after all," and he predicted, "Nationhood as we know it will be
obsolete, all states will recognize a single, global authority. "After
then-President Clinton failed to get congressional authorization for his war on
Yugoslavia, Madeleine Albright, his Secretary of State, rationalized it by
demanding that Yugoslavia surrender its sovereignty. She said: "Great nations
who understand the importance of sovereignty at various times cede various
portions of it in order to achieve some better good for their country." FOJ Note: So why does John Kerry want to ask the UN and Europe for permission to defend America when it is attacked? There can be only one answer; He does not respect US sovereignty and prefers Global Governance.
Quartet Meets PA Prime Minister 
July 7….(FOJ) Palestinian Prime Minister Ahmed Qurie met yesterday with UN Middle East envoy Terje Roed-Larsen, United States envoy David Satterfield, and Russia's Middle East envoy Alexander Kalugin n a meeting in the West Bank town of Ramallah, July 7, 2004. The envoys from the United States, Russia, United Nations and the European Union told Palestinian Prime Minister Ahmed Qurie in a meeting the international community had had enough of 'empty promises' about reform from Palestinian President Yasser Arafat. Meanwhile, Arafat was meeting with Secretary-General of French Communist Party Marie-Georges Buffet during their meeting at his office in the West Bank town of Ramallah to discuss ways to undermine US pressure and influence within the Quartet.
U.S. Removes Two Tons of Uranium From Iraq July 7….(Fox News) In a secret operation, the United States last month removed from Iraq nearly two tons of uranium and hundreds of highly radioactive items that could have been used in a so-called dirty bomb, the Energy Department disclosed Tuesday. The nuclear material was secured from Iraq's former nuclear research facility and airlifted out of the country to an undisclosed Energy Department laboratory for further analysis, the department said in a statement. Energy Secretary Spencer Abraham described the previously undisclosed operation, which was concluded June 23, as "a major achievement" in an attempt to "keep potentially dangerous nuclear material out of the hands of terrorists." A recent study by researchers at the Center for Nonproliferation Studies at the Monterey Institute of International Studies concluded it is "all but certain" that some kind of dirty bomb will be set off by a terrorist group in the years ahead.
Ex-Kuwaiti Amb.: Kerry "Catastrophic" for Mid East July 7….(Jerusalem Post) Sheik Saud Al Nasser Al Sabah, who was Kuwait's ambassador to the United States when Republican President George Bush formed a US-led coalition to liberate Kuwait from Saddam Hussein's Iraqi army in the 1991 Gulf War, said It would be "catastrophic" for the Middle East if Democratic presidential candidate John Kerry was elected to the White House, If the American administration changes in November, it will be catastrophic, because those liberal Democrats do not understand a thing about foreign policy, and they lack the determination to make decisions the way (President George W.) Bush made them in Iraq and elsewhere," Sheik Saud told Al-Siyassah daily in an interview conducted recently in Kuwait. Sheik Saud served as ambassador to Washington from 1981 to 1992 and also held the Gulf state's oil and information ministries. He currently holds no official post and his views do not necessarily reflect those of the Kuwaiti government. Kuwait, which was the only Arab country to openly support the war, depends on Washington and other Western allies for its defense. More than any of Iraq's neighbors, Kuwait wants stability and security restored in the war-ravaged country, fearing that terrorism and infighting in Iraq would spill into it. Sheik Saud told the daily that he feared a Democratic government would "fumble" when making decisions about the Middle East. "Our only hope is that this (Bush) administration will continue for the next few years to finish off dealing with our regional problems," he added. The younger president Bush is running against Kerry for a second term in this November's vote. Sheik Saud said Kuwait was lucky that George Bush Sr. was in the White House when Saddam invaded in 1990, while he believed America's post-1991 Gulf War president Bill Clinton was not as firm with the ousted Iraqi leader. Saddam called the Kuwaiti’s dogs in his recent court appearance in Baghdad.
Beheading in Islam 
July 7….(Jewish World Review) In recent years, the act of beheading has become a popular trend among Islamist terrorists, who cite the Koran's Sura Muhammad, Verse 4, as its theological basis: "When you meet in battle those who have disbelieved, smite their necks; and after the slaughter fasten tight the bonds, until the war lays aside its burdens.Then either release them as a favor, or in return for ransom." "Hitting the neck," or, in Arabic, "Darb Al-A'nak", literally speaking, is one of several words in Arabic for killing. It is not "murdering," since the word "murdering" carries a derogatory meaning. It is simply "killing." This word, which is taken from ancient Muslim vocabulary, preserves the actual manner in which beheadings have been carried out. Therefore, beheading is not seen as unusual or inhumane. It is an act of Islamic punishment under sharia, or, Islamic law. The beheading of Daniel Pearl in February 2002, followed by the killings of Nicholas Berg, Paul Johnson Jr., and Kim Sun-Il, and the kidnappings and threats to behead a growing list of captives, have garnered major press attention for the terrorists as Arab satellite channels rush to air these acts. Iran Warns US of Global Retaliation July 6….(Daily Star) Iran's supreme leader Ayatollah
Ali Khamenei warned the United States yesterday that any attack on the Islamic
republic's interests would be met with a global response. "If the enemy
attacks our scientific, natural, human or technological interests, the Iranian
people will cut off its hand without hesitation and place in danger the
interests of the aggressor everywhere in the world," he told a gathering in the
western city of Hamedan.  
 
 
  Powered by Bravenet
 
|